Breaking free
by superwhopottermerlock
Summary: Abigall Spiers sold her soul for a friend. Now she had been resurrected from hell, but how? The Winchesters find her and take her in. Who is she really and what does the future hold for her? She meets the archangel Gabriel who makes her question everything she knows. How is God involved? How is one girl supposed to stop the apocalypse and save the world?
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: **_Hello wonderful readers! Thanks for giving this story a chance :) This is set sometime in season five but before Gabriel dies. I love Gabriel way too much, so I decided to write a fic about him. Hope that's alright! Oh and just a fair warning this fic does contain cussing, so sorry bout that. Leave a review to tell me what you think please.

Oh and I'm sure you are all rather clever and all, but thought I should point something out to you anyways. The name of my OC is Abigall or Abby, meaning Father's joy or joy of the Father. Could that be a hint for who she is? 

_**Disclaimer: **_Unfortunately I do not own Supernatural or Litvack, sorry.

I moved my straight golden brown hair out of my blue eyes and opened my eyes to see I was in the middle of a forest. '_This is wrong_' I think to myself as I grabbed my pocket knife and opened it. That's different too. Normally when he makes me think I'm free he doesn't give me a way to defend myself. '_Maybe I really am out? No, don't be ridiculous. You know that's not possible. You knew what you were signing up for when you made the deal. Besides, I should be used to this by now. You have been here three hundred and sixty three years, you should know better by now._' I tried to scold myself, refusing to believe I had escaped. Four times, that's how many times he has done this. Made me believe I was out just to have reality to come crashing down around me. Damn the demons and their games. Damn Litvack, or perhaps it was Crowley, he helped sometimes considering Litvack was his pupil and right hand demon. 

Well whichever one it was, I was not falling for it, not this time. Never again. "You lose dicks, I'm not falling for this one again." I yelled out into the seemingly empty forest knowing they would hear. I closed my eyes preparing myself for the forest to melt away and the familiar torture chamber in Hell to welcome me back. I waited. And waited. "Come on, what are you waiting for? Why am I still here? I just ruined your fun so send me back!" Strange, normally he would bring me back as soon as I figured it out.

Not that I wanted the endless pain to return of course, but once again I knew what I was signing up for when I made the deal. And remembering who I made the deal for made it worth it. I could handle the eternity of pain, for him. I had to. If it meant he got to live a long, normal life it was worth it. That's probably why I haven't given in yet. At the end of every day Litvack gives me an offer. I will stop being tortured if I torture instead. Sometimes it's tempting, so tempting, especially after a creatively painful day. But I don't give in. Not yet. If I do then the whole deal would have been worthless. I would have sold my soul for nothing. I know how it goes, after torturing enough souls eventually your humanity will go away, and you become a demon. I can't become a demon, not I it means one day I might have to go back and kill him. For that reason I have stayed strong for three hundred and sixty three years. I am not going to risk becoming a demon and killing him after everything I have done to make sure he stays alive. 

I hear a rustling in a bush behind me and grip the knife tighter. It's probably Litvack. "Finally come to take me back so you can continue using me as a human canvass for your knives?" I ask sarcastically. 

"Sammy, I think she is drunk." A soft whisper comes from the bush. A man talking to another. Okay, apparently the joke is still on sense he is sending '_people_' presumably to '_rescue_' me.

"I can hear you, I'm not drunk, and I know you are not real so Litvack you can make them go away now you son of a bitch!" I yelled the last part to the sky, knowing he was watching and probably enjoying every moment of this.

"Dean, she said Litvack. Do you think...?" 

I cut off the one presumably named Sammy. "How about you boys come out and talk to me faced to face?" I tapped my foot, still not believing any of this was real. 

Two boys stepped out from the bush, one significantly taller than the other. The tall one had a long mane of brown hair and a red button up plaid shirt with a Black jacket over top. The shorter one had short normal length hair, a black shirt under an unbuttoned dark plaid shirt and a brown leather jacket on top. And some sort of necklace that I couldn't quite make out from the distance. Both of them had blood splattered all over them. 

The tall one started talking first. "I'm Sam Winchester, this is my brother Dean. Who are you?" 

I narrowed my eyes, for a simple prank Litvack sure was making it believable. But why would he make them covered in blood? "Abigall Spiers."

"You said something about Litvack. As in the demon Litvack?" The one called Sam asked in a gentle tone. I nodded. "He does most of his work in Hell, what do you know about him?" 

I couldn't help but laugh darkly. "Too much." At this the boys exchanged worried glances at each other. 

"Dean, do you think she-?" 

"Probably, that would explain why she showed up out of nowhere-" 

"And in the same forest you said you were in when-"

"How long do you think she-" 

"Who knows? She seems to think she is still there so-" 

"Should we ask if she saw-?" 

"Not yet, she just met us she probably thinks-" 

"But he is our-!" 

"Sammy I know! But that doesn't mean-" 

"Hello! Yeah hi, still here. Sorry to interrupt but do you think you could not talk about me like I can't hear you? And what's with the blood?" I was getting annoyed, what kind of messed up trick was this? Damn you Litvack, damn you. 

Both of them looked guilty. Good. Sam spoke first. "I'm sorry Abigall; we just sometimes get carried away... We were uh, hunting. Anyways, do you mind if we ask you a few questions?" I sighed and nodded, giving them the okay. "What is the last thing you remember before appearing here?"

"You mean besides Hell?" I assumed that's what they were talking about earlier, me being in Hell. So at least I didn't look completely crazy talking about it. Not like it mattered anyways, none of this was real so it doesn't really matter what I said. "I don't know... A bright light maybe?"

Dean nodded. "Sounds about right. For a split second I think I saw the light of Cas's Grace before he dragged me out." He turned to Sam. "Any idea who got her out? Or why? She is obviously important considering they took the time to help her considering all the crap that's been going on." 

Sam shrugged at his brother and turned to me. "How long were you in there?" 

It was my turn to shrug. "Who knows? Time passes differently here than there. What year is it?" I wanted to believe I was out, really I did. But I couldn't, no, I wouldn't. I wouldn't allow myself to fill with hope just to have it shattered. Again.

Dean answered. "It's March of 2013."

I nodded. "So I have been there a little over three years." 

Sam and Dean stared at me in shock. Dean stuttered, "Three years? That's over three hundred sixty years!" 

"Yeah, thanks for reminding me." I spat. 

Dean looked down, ashamed. "I'm sorry; it's just that I have been there. Forty years, broke after thirty and took the offer. I can't even imagine what you must have gone through." Surprisingly there was no pity in his voice, just understanding and pain. 

"I didn't realize that. I'm sorry." Great, now I was feeling bad for a figment of my imagination. Just what I needed right now.

"Not your fault. Anyway something powerful must have dragged you out, and you must be important for them to try. My guess is it was an angel, but it might be awhile till we find out which one. Until then you can travel with us. I'm guessing you know a thing or two about demons after everything you went through so you won't be useless."

"That's alright; I'm good on my own thanks." The last thing I needed was to be getting attached to boys that were not real. 

Sam turned to Dean and whispered, "I don't think she believes she is out."

"Well can you blame her? With the amount of time she spent in there I'm sure they made her believe she was out just to have it come crashing down on her more than once." Dean sighed and turned back to me. "Okay, I think I know how to make you believe you are out. You just gotta trust us for a few minutes okay?" I nodded uncertainly. "Alright, here it goes, you better answer you son of a bitch. CAS! Cas get down here, we need you!"

I thought he was crazy for about two seconds because he was yelling at the sky. But almost immediately a handsome dark haired blue eyed man in a trench coat appeared three inches behind Dean. "Hello Dean. You called?"

Dean whirled around. "Jesus Cas, we talked about this. Personal space?" Dean complained, making no movement to get away from the other man. They stared at each other for about ten seconds before Dean cleared his throat loudly. "Right, well this is Abigall Spiers. We think an angel dragged her out of Hell. Can you use your angel mojo to make her believe she is in the real world?"

The man named Cas nodded and walked over to me. "I can make her see the truth." 

He placed two of his fingers to my forehead and I was momentarily blinded by a white light. I saw myself. I was in the all too familiar room designed especially for me. Litvack was doing his usual creative routine, Slicing and cutting till there was nothing left. I tried to refuse giving him the pleasure of me screaming out loud. I bit my lip till it bled trying to control my voice. Eventually he got bored and gave me the same offer he always made. Like always I refused, I would be betraying him if I gave in. Litvack sighed and left, leaving my body to heal before he continued with his torture. I closed my eyes and tried to rest a bit before he came back. A glowing gold hand reached out to me and grabbed my wrist. 'Huh, don't remember that. Guess that's what I get for closing my eyes.' The glowing figure fought its way out while it dragged me along. I must have passed out the second it touched me because my eyes were closed and my body hung limp. We broke through the surface of the ground and it disappeared, leaving me to wake up alone.

I blinked and stumbled back. It all must have passed through my brain in a matter of seconds because the boys hadn't seemed to move at all. "S-so it's true? I'm really out?" I asked disbelievingly. 

Cas nodded. "Yes. It would appear that one of my siblings have freed you." He looked like he knew more than he was letting on, but I didn't question it. Not yet anyways.

"One of your siblings? You're an angel?" It made sense I guess, how else did it explain him appearing out of thin air and pushing the memories into my head? 

"Yes. My name is Castiel; I am an angel of the Lord." Wow, an actual angel. I didn't know if I should scream from happiness, ask all the questions that I had been wondering about since I became a Christian that the pastor didn't answer, or if I should bow on my knees and start singing praises. I settled on giving him a blank stare and blinking twice. I really needed to get better at socializing, but hey, I had an excuse. Three hundred sixty years of talking to no one but a couple demons doesn't exactly make you the best person to start a conversation with.

After a few more silent minutes of staring and trying to remember how to be normal, Castiel finally blinked and looked down. "I have to go now; I must talk to my brother Gabriel immediately. I will return soon. It was nice to meet you Isabelle. Goodbye Dean." With that he fluttered away.

"Yeah, bye to you too Cas, nice chat." Sam said sarcastically. 

As soon as he was gone I shrieked and clamped my hand over my mouth, eyes going wide. "Oh my God. He was an angel. I met an angel. An actual angel."

Dean smirked. "Well Sammy, it's a close call but I think you fangirled more than her the first time you met him." Sam glared back in response.

"I'm sorry. I just... He was an angel!" I tried to emphasize my point so they wouldn't think I was completely nuts. 

Sam chuckled. "Oh just wait. There are more impressive things out there than angels." 

"If by impressive you mean scary, then yes." Dean answered. "Trust me Abby, you do not want to get on an angels bad side." 

I nodded, taking in their words. "I already knew angels and demons are real. I just.. Never thought I would get to meet one. What else is out there? Ghosts, the yeti, vampires, loch ness monster?" 

Dean shook his head. "Nah, the yeti is just a hoax. Same with Nessie and Bigfoot. But there are monsters out there. Vampires and ghosts are real. Hell, it's their blood that's all over us; we just took down a nest of them. Shape shifters are real too, so are skinwalkers, werewolves, wendigos, and so much more. So best to stay with us till we know you're safe yeah?" 

I could tell there was probably some other reason they wanted me to stick around and not just for my safety. Probably has something to do with why Castiel disappeared so suddenly to talk to whomever it was he said. Gabriel? Yeah, that sounded right. After a few seconds I realized they were both staring at me, waiting for an answer. "How do I know you can be trusted?" I already knew I was going to go with them, it's not like I had anywhere else to go anyways. Everyone I knew thought I was dead. Hell, some of them watched me die.

Sam took a step closer. "You don't. But you never know till you give it a try. I get that trust has to be earned, but we can't earn it unless you let us right?" 

I smiled, thankful that they were taking me with them, whatever the reason might be. "Fine then. Hope you guys have some food back at your house, I haven't eaten in over three hundred years." I joked as I started to follow them out of the woods.

Sam looked at me and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Right. Home. You see, we don't exactly have a home. We road trip around the country, wherever the next job takes us. We hardly ever stay in the same place for more than a week. The closest we have had to a home in years is Dean's car or Bobby's."

Dean cut in before I had a chance to reply. "Yeah, but that's not the worst part. See the majority of people either think we are dead or criminals and we don't exactly have time to sit behind a desk all day to earn money. We live off fake I.D.s and stolen credit cards. That reminds me, we should probably make you some of your own sense you will be joining us." 

"Dean we are not taking her in hunts. It's too dangerous." Sam said with a stern look on his face. 

"I'm not saying we throw her in front of a demon right away or anything, but we should still get her the I.D.s and badges. She can help with the questioning and research." 

"But what if the ghost or demon is there watching and sees her? It might go after her and we can't risk that." 

"Then we teach her to defend herself. And maybe someday if she wants she can-" 

"No Dean. We need to keep her safe until we figure out-"

I was getting tired of them talking about me like I wasn't there. I didn't want to fight with them either so I walked a little ahead towards the black car I assumed was theirs. I'll just wait here and let them talk it out. So maybe letting some brothers who basically admitted to being monster serial killers wasn't my best idea, but it sure beat the alternative of starving to death lost in the woods. 

I took the time to memorize the car, knowing I would be riding in it a lot from now on. A black 1967 four door Chevrolet Impala. I wasn't an old car nerd or anything, but I could appreciate a beautiful car when I saw one. My mom was obsessed with them so I knew a thing or two about them. Living with her it was impossible not to. Even I had to admit that the car was beautiful. She was in such great condition that she could have passed as new. So clean and she didn't have a scratch on her. She was in great shape for such an old car. Not a bad ride at all. I could see myself quickly getting used to riding in her across the country, windows down and music blasting. 

The boys must have finished their conversation because they had fallen silent and had caught up to me. Dean glanced at me with a smirk on his face as he saw me ogling the car. "What do ya think?" He asked proudly.

"Yours?" He nodded. Sam rolled his eyes. I nodded in approval. "She is rather beautiful. You must take great care of her to be in the great shape she's in." 

Dean smiled happily as he unlocked the car. "Finally someone who appreciates Baby. Just for that you get to ride shotgun." 

Sam glared and I smiled playfully as I pushed past him and into the front seat. "Sorry." I said happily, obviously not sorry at all. Everyone got in the car and Dean drove off.

"So do you guys do this often? Take in random strangers and make them hunt with you?" 

Dean chuckled. "No, not exactly. With the job we meet a lot of people. We try to save as many as possible. Saving people, hunting things, the family business. We don't take them along though, they usually have friends and family to get back to. Sometimes when we are lucky we get a few days off. Once or twice we might get a week off." 

"So what'll I be doing while you boys run around killing demons?" I wanted to do something to help them, I hated feeling useless.

"Well in our free time Dean or I can teach you enough to keep yourself alive during a supernatural attack. But for the most part you will probably be at the hotel room doing research or something. In return we will buy you food and let you stay with us. Deal?" 

I turned to look at Sam, nodding happily. I did know a bit about the supernatural of course, seeing as that's what led me to sell my soul in the first place. But since I obviously didn't know enough to stay alive I could take all the help I could get. Damn Ghost facers were practically useless in a real life situation. Note to self: Next time you go after a ghost do not trust amateur 'hunters' you see on YouTube.

We finally checked into a hotel and got a room after half an hour of driving. Dean left shortly after we got into the room saying he was going to get food, and giving a pointed look to his brother he made a comment about not forgetting the pie.

I decided to get a shower while I waited on the food. The warm water felt amazing as I scrubbed away all the dirt and sweat from my body. I sighed happily as I turned the water off, feeling clean and refreshed for the first time in a long time. I stared at my dirty torn clothes in disgust; I would definitely need to buy some more before I did any hunting with the boys. I slipped the clothes on and was about to come out of the bathroom when I noticed the hushed arguing. Dean must have come back with the food. I knew I probably shouldn't eavesdrop on some people I just met, but hey I was curious.

"Dean, we have been over this. Gabriel can be trusted. I think so, Cas thinks so, you are the only one against it." 

"Well sorry if I'm not going to be his best friend after he killed me... How many times exactly? Over one hundred at least."

"You don't even remember him doing it! It was more painful for me because I still remember it happening!" 

"Exactly! You watched him kill me countless times and you still want to include him in our group. You trust others too easily Sam." 

"If you're going to blame anyone for this, blame Cas. He's the one that vouched for Gabriel in the first place. And since then he has done nothing but try to prove himself to us. How many times had he saved our asses?" 

"Still, I'd rather he have brought Balthazar into this than Gabriel. Tricksters can't be trusted. Always changing sides to suite their own needs. He might not be an Archangel, but at least we know Balthazar won't betray us." 

"Just give him a chance Dean. The only reason I'm willing to let Gabriel join our little group is because Cas said he changed and we should try to trust him, and I trust Cas. I thought you did too." 

Well that sure shut Dean up. Even though I couldn't see them from my side of the door, I could guess they were having an intense staring match. I should probably walk in before the tension gets too thick. "Hey Dean, your back. What kind of food did you bring?" I pretended not to notice them hiding the argument they just had with forced smiles.

"Pizza, hope that's okay with you. Got you cheese, didn't know what topping you liked." He handed me a six slice box of pizza then he and Sam opened their box. I opened it, my mouth watering as the smell filled my nose. I took a small bite, savoring the first taste of food I'd had in forever. I wanted to make the meal last longer, but I was so hungry that I finished within ten minutes. 

"So what do we do now? Find some monsters or wait for them to come to us?" I asked as I stood up to throw away my empty pizza box. 

"Whoa there. First off, you won't be involved in any hunts until we teach you a little bit about it. And second, before we do anything you should probably get some new clothes and Dean and I will still have to make you ID's and all that."

I hated this. I hated feeling useless and stupid. I knew they would have to teach me some things but surely I could be of some help in the meantime, right? Oh well, best not to argue with them. I didn't exactly feel like being invited into their life just to be kicked out in the same day. 

I nodded to Sam, agreeing to his terms. For now. I jumped and nearly screamed when the dark haired angel appeared in the middle of the room. "Hello Dean. Sam. I need to talk to the two of you."

Sam glanced at me nervously, as though he thought I would go running or be attacked the second they turned their backs to me. "We will be right outside if you need us okay?"

I rolled my eyes. "Of course mom, I'll be sure to scream if I get a paper cut or something." It was sweet of him to worry so much after just meeting me, but surely I could handle being on my own for a few minutes. 

Castiel squinted his eyes and tilted his head. "That is illogical. A man cannot possibly be a mother for they do not have the reproductive organs allowing them to give birth." 

I studied the angel. I couldn't tell if this was his idea of a joke or if he was being serious. Dean sent me a pleading '_just go with it and don't ask questions_' look. Apparently it was normal for Cas to not understand jokes and say things like this. Great, they have a Captain America in the group. 

They stepped outside the room and I turned on the TV. After a few minutes of channel surfing I settled on Star Wars. It was already half over but I hadn't seen that in a while so I turned it on. Not being one to sit still for long, after about ten minutes I started walking around the room glancing at the papers thrown on the small table. I shuffled through one of the stacks, noticing they had hand written notes all over the margins. On closer inspection they appeared to be about Vampires, presumably the nest they had taken down before they found me. 

I went to the next stack; they were all near where we were. Probably looking for a next job or something. I cursed myself as my finger slid against one of the papers and went to wipe off the drop of blood in the sink. Paper cut, how ironic. I sat back on the bed and watched the rest of the movie. The boys walked in just as it was showing the transformation from Anakin to Darth Vader. 

Sam walked over to the table and turned on his laptop while Cas and Dean sat on the other bed. No one was talking and to be honest it made me kind of uncomfortable. "So... What was that about?" 

"Nothing much, Cas was just catching us up on heaven." Dean started nonchalantly. "Tomorrow we will go out and get you everything you need. Until then I'm sure Sammy has a pair of sweats or something so you can sleep comfortably." 

And he did. Only problem was Sam was way taller than me so I had to hold the pants up to keep them from falling down. But hey, they had done so much for me who was I to complain? I would have taken the pull out couch, but Dean insisted that he take it. He knew how hard it could be to recover from being in hell and he seemed determined that I get a bed. Of course after I got all comfortable and was starting to doze off Dean kicked Sam out of the other bed, making Sam take the couch so Dean could have the bed. I chuckled slightly at their brotherly banter, silently wishing that I wasn't an only child and had a sibling.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Chapter two, yay! Thanks to everyone who read the first chapter and is sticking around for another, you guys are the best. Hope you like and let me know what you think

**Disclaimer:** Still don't own, sorry folks.

For the first time in many years, I was able to fall asleep. And God did it feel great. At first. 

"_Why are we doing this again?" I looked up expectantly at Dylan. He had managed to drag me out to the woods in the middle of the night in search of a ghost._

_Now for any normal person's standards, twenty five was way too old to believe in ghosts. But over the past few months we had been seeing some pretty weird things that could only be described as supernatural. _

"_Because this thing has already killed three people, one of them was my cousin. And since you are practically the only person I can talk to about any of this without sounding like a madman, I had no choice but to bring you along to help me get rid of it." He smiled at me, letting me know not to take it personally and he was joking about the last part. _

"_Well that's not entirely true. I _do_ think you're a madman." I gently shoved him with my shoulder as we continued our hike. _

"_And yet here you are." He half questioned, half acknowledged. _

"_Here I am." I agreed. "If I didn't come with you, you would probably do something stupid and manage to get hurt." He gave me a small smile and shrugged in agreement. _

"_What if he isn't even buried out here? And how do we know these Ghostfacers even know what they are talking about?" We had been walking around for at least an hour with no signs of a grave marker. _

"_Ah, dear Abby, you have no faith. Leave it to you to question the plan _after_ we already started. Just trust me. I know some guys that told me they have the right idea." I rolled my eyes, smiling slightly at the nickname. _

_Not too long after, the temperature suddenly dropped thirty degrees. "I think we are close." I whisper as I take a few more steps forwards. _

_I was really starting to regret coming now. I could have talked him out of it if I had tried. We were only slightly deeper in the woods than where they had found the other bodies. At the moment the forest was closed off, we weren't even supposed to be out here in the first place. But Dylan had wanted to get rid of the bastard that had killed his cousin. The two were as close as brothers, so it was understandable that he would want revenge. _

_But still, if I had trusted my gut feeling and obeyed the yellow 'caution: do not enter' tape around the woods none of this would have happened. The whole mess could have been avoided if we turned around now. But of course I must not have been thinking properly because we had no such luck._

"_Here," He pointed to a tree that had a name carved into it near the base and an area of dirt that looked like it had been dug up and refilled because of the lack of weeds and grass. "Start digging. Hurry." He tossed me a shovel and we dug. Surprisingly it didn't take too long to get to the body. I gagged when I saw it. It was only a year or two old and still had a lot of the skin and flesh clinging to the bones. _

_I reached into my backpack and took out the salt while Dylan got the gasoline, and together we poured it over the body. I turned to Dylan just in time to see a transparent figure throw him into a tree. He fell to the ground, unconscious. _

"_Dylan! Oh you son of a bitch, you'll pay for that!" I light the match and threw it on the corpse before it could do any further harm. After watching the ghost burst into flames, I ran over to Dylan's side. _

"_Come on, wake up." I checked for a pulse. Nothing. _'No, this is not happening. No, no, no, no, no.' _His neck must have broken when he hit the tree. Tears started to form in my eyes as realization dawned on me. I couldn't lose him. No, I _wouldn't _lose him. _

_I ran out of the forest quickly, hoping and praying this would work. If ghosts were real then demons had to be real too, right? I came to the nearest crossroads, doing what was expected to summon the demon. I buried the box and waited. _

"_Hello sweetheart." I turned to find a man in a rather expensive looking suit walking towards me. "The name's Crowley. What can I do for you?"_

_I bit my lip to hold back a sob. "My friend, he got hurt. We were in the woods and something happened. He...He's dead." My voice cracked. I mentally cursed myself for showing signs of weakness to a demon. "Please, heal him. Bring him back. Please."_

_Crowley smiled an evil glint in his eyes. "Of course darling, of course. But first, we have to make an agreement. I'll give you one month and then you join me. How does that sound?"_

"_One month? I thought it was traditional to have ten years after making the deal?" I asked, confused._

"_In a normal situation, yes. However, this is anything but normal. You are not the average girl __Abigall__Spiers__. So, do we have a deal?" He was starting to get impatient. I nodded and kissed him quickly, before he could change his mind or lower my days more. "See you in a month." With that he disappeared. _

_I ran as quickly as I could back to the place in the woods. I reached him, panting and out of breath. "Please work, please, please work." I chanted as I kneeled in front of him. What was only a few minutes in reality felt like forever as I waited for him to come back to life. I flung myself into his arms as soon as his eyes started to open, sobs racking through my body. _

"_Hey, you okay? What did I miss?" His arms wrapped around me, holding me close. He tried to comfort me by rubbing small circles on my back. _

_After what felt like forever, I had finally calmed down enough to talk. "I'm sorry. Just, it threw you into the tree and you blacked out. You wouldn't wake up and I guess I panicked." I felt bad for lying to him of course, but I couldn't tell him the truth. He would probably start yelling at me for how stupid I was and how I should have left him there. _

"_Well I'm fine now, okay? I'm not going anywhere." He smiled down at me and helped me up. I sighed slightly in disappointment. I had felt so safe in his arms. But he was safe, and that's what mattered. _

_True to his word, Crowley came exactly one month later. He came for me on the twenty third of August, the last day that I was supposed to be alive._

_My friend Laura had just got a huge promotion and we had all gone out to eat to celebrate. We lived in a small town called Kirtland Hills, Ohio, with a population of just under a thousand so pretty much everything was close enough to walk to. It was around nine at night when we left the restaurant and started to head back to Laura's place to hang out. Since we were walking and didn't need a designated driver, all five of us were pretty tipsy. The restaurant had great wine and we had gone a little overboard with it. _

_We were walking past an alley way when I first saw them. Big and black, empty eye sockets and razor sharp teeth and claws stood two hellhounds. My friends, having not been the ones to make the deal, saw nothing. That would explain why they looked confused when random wounds appeared on my body and started to bleed. It only took them a second to realize I was dying and they all started screaming in panic. Dylan rushed to my side, trying to support me as the hounds attacked again, this time they pulled me down dragged me into the alley to finish me off. I held back the screams of pain, not wanting to worry my friends further. At least when the cops would ask them about my death what they saw could probably be excused due to the alcohol consumption. _

_My vision went black. The last thing I saw was Dylan's terrified expression. When I opened my eyes, I was surprised to realize my body was back in one piece. But unfortunately not for too much longer. I was strapped to a wooden table, unable to move and a demon with glowing green eyes stood above me in the cellar. "Hello. I am Litvack. We are going to have some fun." He smiled evilly as he pressed a knife into my skin and began the first of many torture sessions. _

I sat up, panting heavily_. 'It was just a dream.'_ I told myself to calm down, waiting for my heart rate to return to normal. I silently thanked myself for training myself not to scream in hell, at least now I wouldn't be waking up Sam and Dean with my pathetic nightmare problem.

_'Five thirty. Too late to try to get back to sleep.'_ I think disappointedly asI glance at the clock on the night stand. I get a quick shower then try to look as presentable as I can in my old dirty clothes. I folded Sam's sweats neatly and placed them on the floor next to the pull out couch.

Me, being who I am, couldn't sit still for long. I didn't turn on the TV because I didn't want to risk waking up the boys. I paced back and forth from one side of the room to the other for a few minutes until I saw Sam's laptop, still opened from last night, sitting on the small circular table by the door. Curious, but mostly just bored and looking for something to do, I walked over to it. I moved the mouse a little to wake it up then I opened Google Chrome. Might as well see what kind of events I missed over the last three years. I had been scrolling through the internet for about two hours before I heard either of the boys making any noise indicating that they would be waking up soon. I quickly exited the website and moved away from the laptop just in time to see Dean sitting up and opening his eyes. 

"Morning." He mumbled as he grabbed a change of clothes and walked over to the bathroom. Twenty minutes later Sam was up and in the shower with Dean pounding on the door for him to hurry up. 

"Sorry about my brother. He takes longer to get ready in the morning than a girl, I swear." Dean said, giving up on yelling at Sam and sitting across from me on the other bed. 

I smiled slightly enviously. I never had a sibling to fight with. I never had someone who would be there for me no matter what. "It's fine, I don't mind waiting."

Dean nodded. After a minute of silence he shifted his weight and asked almost nervously, "Can I ask you something?" When I nodded he continued. "How are you so okay with this? You get dragged out of hell and allow two men and an angel to basically kidnap you and you haven't freaked out once. I mean when I got out of hell I was alone. Lost and confused with nowhere to go. It took me forever to get over the nightmares that woke me up every night. They still keep me up sometimes. And yet here you are, seemingly perfectly normal. You don't seem to be affected by any of this. How is that possible?"

I was shocked that he had asked something so personal after just meeting me, but I figured I owed him this much. He had given me a place to stay and allowed me to tag along with them after all. I thought carefully before answering. "Well when I made the deal I knew what I was getting into. I knew the consequences but I did it anyways. It was for someone I cared about so I figured it was worth it. Honestly I never thought I would get out for real. But then I did somehow and you two showed up out of nowhere like a gift from heaven offering me a place with you guys. Don't get me wrong, I probably will be plagued in my sleep by the memories of what happened, but I guess that's something I'll have to deal with. I've taught myself how to shut up so hopefully I won't be screaming in the middle of the night and waking up you and your brother. I learned long ago to be thankful for what you had because it can always be worse. I just hope you don't get sick of me too quickly, it would kinda suck to be kicked out before I find another place to stay."

He nodded understandingly. I wonder what he went to hell for. Ah well, I'll ask him later. I'm not that great at heart-to-hearts. "Don't worry; you're not the worst company so I guess we can tolerate you for a while. Stick around as long as you like. We'll start a club, 'team we've both been to hell.' Hooray for tortured souls." He raised an imaginary drink as a toast and I 'clinked' my imaginary glass against his.

Sam walked out of the bathroom with his freshly shaven face and perfect newly washed hair. "You two ready?" He raised his eyebrows at our pretend glasses but said nothing. Nodding, we stood up and went out to the car. 

'_Well, welcome to day one in my new life of being a professional hunter.'_ I thought as we drove off.

Dean parked the car close to the doors of a fairly large mall. He handed me a credit card. "Here, get what you need. Depending on the case and cover we chose you might want to get a few fancy dresses or suits or something professional. Don't worry about the cost, it ain't a real card and won't cost us a thing." I smiled gratefully and accepted the card. 

Sam unlocked the door and I got out. "We will be back in about two hours. We are going to go to the other side of town and get you all the ID's and everything you will need. Have fun, don't get into trouble. If you see a demon, stab them with this and run." He pulled out a knife with a wood handle and something in another language carved into the blade.

I thanked the boys, put the knife in the inside pocket of the jacket Dean had lent me, and walked off into the mall. I walked into the first store I saw and bought a change of some clean clothes. Then I changed into them in the bathroom and disposed the dirty torn up clothes I had been wearing, except for Dean's jacket of course. Finally feeling clean, I walked out of the bathroom and continued my shopping. I walked into coach and purchased a large duffle bag with multiple zippered pockets, a purse, and a backpack.

I finished my clothes shopping fairly quickly and wandered over to the jewelry store. I never was much of a girly girl, but I usually always had a cross necklace around my neck before I went to hell. A simple yet elegant silver cross caught my eye and I bought it and put it on. It hung just below my collar bone. The cross used to just represent my faith, but now that I was back on earth it symbolizes so much more. I had met an angel, and a different one had most likely dragged me out. Now I was with the Winchesters it was a reminder of what I had done, what I had been through, and all the good I was going to do by helping them kill demons. 

I sat outside on a bench and folded my new clothes and placed them in the duffel bag along with the toiletries. In the backpack I put the books I had bought and a notebook so I could write down information we gathered on each job. I made sure to leave room for weapons, knowing that the boys would probably give me more than a knife to defend myself on an actual case. In the purse I put my wallet, pepper spray (who says only demons can attack you?) and a few packets of salt I took from the cafeteria. 

I didn't have to wait too much longer for the boys to show up. Dean pulled the car up to the curb, nodding in approval as he saw I had all my stuff already packed. I jumped into the backseat, setting my bags on the floor by me feet.

I passed the credit card back up to Dean. "Thanks. You got everything you need?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm all set. Thanks again, for everything."

"No problem." Sam handed me a yellow envelope. "Here, this has all I.D's, badges, and credit cards you should need." I thanked him and took it, organizing the cards into my new wallet. He also handed me a pretty nice cell phone. "I already put a few numbers in it. It has mine, Dean's, Castiel's, and Bobby's. We know other hunter's, but you don't need them right now. You can just add them in as you meet them."

I thanked him and grabbed Sam's knife out of my pocket and gave it back to him. "So where are we going now?"

"There have been a few freak accidents down in Connecticut that could be worth checking out. Or we could call Bobby and have him find another hunter to take care of it while we get you ready for your new life as a hunter."

I nodded, wouldn't hurt to actually know what I'm doing before I dive head first into it. But I didn't want to slow them down either. "We can take the case, I'll just observe or something so I can get the idea of what to do. Best way to learn is through experience after all."

We drove in silence for about thirty minutes before Castiel appeared with another man next to me in the back seat. I jumped, not used to people suddenly appearing out of thin air. The brothers seemed unaffected, this must happen a lot. Joy, another think I had to look forward to.

"Hay Cas. Gabriel, it's nice to see you again. I wasn't expecting you to stop by yet." Sam barely looked up from the map he was holding.

"Cas." Dean nodded in acknowledgment at his angel friend, making it obvious he was ignoring Gabriel.

"Awe common Deano, don't be so rude. You do want pie tonight don't you?" Gabriel mock pouted as he stuck a sucker into his mouth.

The hunter rolled his eyes, silently giving in, if only for the promise of the dessert. "What do you want Gabriel?"

"Well Cas here told me all about your new little friend and I just had to fly in for a visit to introduce myself." He turned to me, smiling brightly. There was something vaguely familiar about him. "Hi, I'm Gabriel as you have probably figured out. Archangel, ex-trickster, messenger of God. Pleasure to finally meet you, Abigall Spiers." He held out his hand to shake and I slowly took it. It was warm, comforting. He seemed nice enough, so why did Dean seem to hate the guy?

"An honor to meet you too. If you don't mind me asking, what is so special about me that made an archangel leave his heavenly duties just to meet me?" And to think that meeting one angel was overwhelming. Yet here I was in the back seat of a car having a normal conversation with two angels, one of them being one of the four archangels. To say I was freaking out on the inside would be an understatement.

"Well my dear, you are anything but an average human. You are special." There was a glint to his eyes, like he knew something I didn't. And considering he had been alive since before the beginning of time that was probably true.

"Gabriel." Cas gave his brother a warning glare. "That is enough on that topic." They stared at each other, changing facial expressions every so often. Could angels communicate telepathically? I figured they had finished their silent discussion when they both nodded slightly and looked away from each other.

"So if you're an archangel that means you know things right? Do you know how I got out?" Okay, yeah, I could have waited a while before asking or trying to not seem so obvious, but hey I was curious.

"Sure I do." Gabriel smiled brightly, honey eyes sparkling. "It was me. Your welcome."

I stared at him, blinking slowly. "Why?"

He shrugged, looking out the window. "Like I said, you are special. Important somehow. Don't bother asking how, I'm not sure yet. I just know somehow you are involved in all this."

Dean practically growled at the angel. "Shut up Gabriel. She doesn't have to be involved in anything. Bringing her into a hunter's life is dangerous enough; we are not going to risk her life further by throwing her into the Apocalypse."

I stared in wonder at Dean. He sure was protective. But I guess being a hunter you didn't have many friends so you had to protect the few you did have. "Thanks but I think that's my decision." I turned to Gabriel. "I'll help in any way I can, not like I have anything to lose. All my friends think I'm dead."

Even though Castiel had been sitting right next to me, he had been so quiet I almost forgot he was there. "Do not feel compelled to do this Abigall. This life might be the one fate chose for you, but if I have learned anything from traveling with Sam and Dean it is that you can choose your own destiny."

I nodded, I would think it over. Not like I had to decide right now anyways, right? The rest of the car ride to the motel was mostly in silence. It was almost dark when Dean pulled into a parking lot of a decent looking building. At least from the outside the rooms didn't look like they would be complete crap. I grabbed my bag and the boys grabbed theirs before walking into the building, the angels following.

Sam glanced around at the unusually large group before turning to the desk boy. "Do you have two conjoining rooms with two queen sized beds each?"

He nodded and scanned the credit card. "Second floor, rooms 221A and 221B. Enjoy your stay." He passes out the room keys and we thanked him and walked towards the stairs.

Once we were out of earshot of the desk boy Sam started talking. "Okay so like you said, the easiest way to learn is on the job." He said, quoting my words from earlier. "Tomorrow we will go question the people close to the victims and try to figure out what is killing them and how to stop it. Then Dean and I will go after it and you will come back here with Cas and Gabriel to protect you. Sound good?"

I wanted to tell them I didn't need protection, but the boys were so stubborn I doubt it would have helped. I nodded and slipped my room key into the door and walked in. I dropped my bag near the bed and walked to the door in the wall, opening it and joining the four in the other room. "So what's our cover tomorrow?"

Dean shrugged. "F.B.I. keeping it simple for your first day. Normally they come alone or in pairs, so you can be new on the job and we are teaching you. Not a total lie." I nodded, making a mental note of which of my new clothes looked most F.B.I approved. "Asking questions isn't too hard depending on the person we are talking to. They will be in various levels of grieving over their lost one so you have to be able to adjust to that. Right now we are thinking that it is just an angry spirit, so usually there is some connection to the victims. Once we know who our ghost is we go to their family and ask where they were buried. But we can't seem too suspicious so we have to throw in a few lies and questions that don't make us look like we aren't actually federal investigators."

I glanced up at Sam, tilting my head. "And that's it? It actually works and people believe you? No offence but you do relies your hair isn't exactly approved of for the F.B.I. right? And the Impala, as beautiful as she may be, is about as conspicuous as they come."

Gabriel chuckled. "Sam will cut his hair the day Dean ditches the car. And trust me sweetheart, neither of those is going to happen in our lifetime. But usually the people don't question it so why should we?"

I shrugged. "Okay, fair enough. So what kind of deaths are we looking at here?"

Dean grabbed a stack of papers, setting them down next to me on the bed as he read the titles. "Here we have 'Man Dies When Ceiling Fan Flies Off.' 'Woman Suffocated by Pillows.' 'Man Gets Stoned to Death by Son's Lego's.' And the last one, 'Man Barbecues Himself in His Own Backyard.' Not exactly my preferred method of dying."

I grimaced as I imagined each death. Sounded like the first one made a huge mess, that had to be a pain to clean up. "Well I always knew Lego's were evil." I said sarcastically, trying to get the images out of my head. "You said the victims are usually connected. Find anything so far?"

Sam turned his laptop screen to me, showing the homepage of Hawley Elementary School. "They all had kids that went here. After interviewing the families we will stop by and talk to the kid's teachers."

"Great, sounds like a plan." I yawned. "Better get some sleep, see you boys in the morning."

I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. Well this wasn't working, so much for sleep. I was tired, exhausted really. So why couldn't I just fall asleep? Maybe it had something to do with knowing what would be in my dreams. I wasn't a fan of nightmares, but then again who was? They suck. They were just another reminder of the past that you are trying to forget. I groaned in defeat, getting out of bed to get myself a glass of water. I glared at the drink as I sipped it, silently cursing myself for not being smart enough to get some Nyquil or something to knock myself out for a few hours. I made a mental note to get some next time we stopped by a convenience store.

I turned back to the bed and dropped the glass and almost screamed when I noticed the figure sitting crossed leg on it. "You know you really should not appear in a girl's room in the middle of the night without her permission, she might think you are stalking her." 

Gabriel shrugged and snapped his fingers, cleaning up the spilled water and broken glass instantly. He popped a candy in his mouth. "I'm an angel, I pop in and out when I want. Get used to it." 

I rolled my eyes and sat on the bed opposite him. "So let me get this straight. You are an angel and you use your powers to conjure up candy?" 

"I'm an ex-trickster. Tricksters and candy go hand in hand. Don't judge, like you don't have any guilty pleasures."

I shrugged, he had a point. I did spend a lot of my free time obsessing over fictional book characters. "Okay you win. But don't be selfish now, share the sugar. Can you make sour skittles?" 

He smirked in an I-can-make-anything-and-do-anything-and-all-you-want-is-skittles kind of way. He raised his hand and snapped his fingers, making a rather large bag of sour skittles appear on my lap. I smiled happily and started eating my favorite candy. 

"So if you can make anything with the snap of your fingers then why doesn't Dean seem to like you?" There, that was subtle enough right? 

He sighed and cast his eyes down sadly as though remembering something bad. "Dean can hold a grudge. Long story short back when I was a trickster I used my powers to play a few not so friendly tricks on the Winchesters. I was trying to teach them a lesson and I admit I could have gone a little overboard. Anyways I realized the boys were right and joined them on their noble mission. Sam for the most part has forgiven me; Dean still has some warming up to do."

I nodded, from what I had heard earlier he had killed Dean multiple times. That isn't exactly something you get over easily. But Sam said he didn't remember it… It kind of sounded like Dean was looking for excuses to hate the guy. But I wasn't going to choose a side, this was between them. Besides, they had both done so much for me who was I to get in the middle of some stupid argument and destroy any kind of friendship I had had with either of them?

"Not to be rude but why are you here? I was kind of trying to sleep before you came in all stalker-ish."

"True, and I apologize for that. But let's get something straight, I'm not a stalker. I just thought that you would like to actually have a decent night's sleep. I can help with that if you want." He looked at me with sincerity in his eyes. At least he didn't mean anything perverted by that.

I looked at him quizzically. "You mean you can take away my nightmares? You would do that for me?"

He smiled gently. "Of course I would. What kind of angel would I be if I went through the effort of dragging you out of hell just so you could be reminded about it every night?"

I smiled gratefully at him. "Thank you Gabriel, that means a lot to me. I owe you." I got under the covers and got comfortable in the warm bed.

He shook his head, still smiling slightly. "You don't owe me anything Abigall Spiers." He snapped his fingers again and my world went black, finally getting the deep dreamless sleep that I had been deprived of last night.


	3. 3 New Life

_**A/N: **_SO SORRY! Okay so I know I didn't post a chapter last week and I'm sorry, I got distracted studying for finals and trying to get everything done. Sorry readers, forgive me! I made this chapter a little longer than the others, so hopefully that makes up for it. Anyways thanks for reading. Special thanks to TabKinesis and anna3311234 for the reviews!

_**Disclaimer:**_ I'm not Eric Kripke so I can't take credit for this wonderful show. Sorry.

I woke up to the sound of my alarm on my new phone. I groaned and quickly turned off the loud not so peaceful sound. '_Five thirty, yeah that wasn't too early to be awake at all_' I thought sarcastically to myself. Ah well, the boys had said last night that I would get plenty of time to sleep between jobs. But still, it should be illegal to have to wake up before the sun. God I hated mornings. Scratch that, I like mornings. It's the waking up part that I'm not a fan of. 

I sat up and glanced around the empty room, Gabriel must have left not long after I fell asleep. I would have to thank him when I saw him, not a single nightmare. I sighed, realizing I would have to get out of bed soon and get ready for the day. 

Within an hour I was showered, dressed, and had applied a little make up. I walked over to the doors that connected the rooms, and realizing the boys hadn't locked theirs, figured it was safe to walk in. The water was running so one of them must have been in the shower but there was no sign of the other. And neither of the angels was in the room. I shrugged, not like it was a big deal. They could pop in and out whenever they wanted so why stick around if there was nothing to do? 

I noticed a book sitting on the small table. "Supernatural". Well I had nothing else to do while I waited for the boys so what the heck. I plopped down on the nearest bed and started reading. I guessed the author, Carver Edlund, must have known the boys because he seemed to be writing about them. Perhaps he was a family friend or he had met Sam and Dean during one of their jobs? Either way it was a good book, really well written. The author had talent, that was for sure. I had gotten about a fourth of the way through by the time I heard the water turn off. A few minutes later the bathroom door opened to reveal Sam, still looking half asleep. 

"Hey. What are you doing here?" 

"My room got boring so I came here. Is that okay?" I bit my lip nervously. Great, now he would think I have no sense of privacy for others. 

He nodded. "Yeah. What book is that?" He walked over and flipped it over, reading the cover.

"I'm sorry, I should have asked. I was bored and I'm nosey. Sorry." I looked down, ashamed. I had no right to go through their stuff and read their books without their permission. "It's about you and Dean." Of course he would know that, but hey, like I said I'm nosey. That was my way of asking how they knew this Carver guy.

He sighed, giving in to my silent demand. "Yeah. His real name is Chuck Shurley. We met him not too long ago. He is a prophet. He has dreams and writes them down. Dean and I told him not to publish any more books though; it is our life after all."

I nodded, trying to understand. "So if you lived it then why get the book?" 

Sam shrugged. "Donno. To see how accurate it is I guess. To see if I'm as much of a wimp as Dean says. Mostly just bored and to get Gabriel to stop nagging me about it." I smiled. I didn't know the archangel that well, but it did kind of sound like something he would do. 

We were interrupted when Dean barged into the room, bag in one hand and box of donuts in the other. "Rise and shine. I brought breakfast, eat up. Don't worry Sammy, I got you something too, ya health nut." He commented, noticing Sam's disapproving frown at the not so healthy food and tossing him a banana and granola bar from the bag.

I stood up and grabbed a cream filled donut and granola bar, smiling at the older brother. "Thanks Dean. So when were we planning on heading out?"

"Just as soon as we are all ready." I tried not to look too disgusted when he spoke and bits of food went flying out of his mouth.

Sam on the other hand, openly frowned at his brother. "Dean, please for the love of pie, do _not_ talk while your mouth is full."

I raised my eyebrows, smirking slightly. "For the love of pie? Really?"

"Yeah, my dear brother here thinks there is nothing greater. Understandable I guess, most angels are dicks and God stopped caring long ago. So for Dean pie is the next best thing." He sighed dramatically, trying to keep from smiling.

I pretended to think it over, playing along with Sam and the melodrama. "I don't know. Pie is great and all, but obviously ice cream is better."

"Oh you did not just say that." Dean looked at Sam in a back me up kind of way. "Sammy, baby brother, tell the lady she is corrupt in her ways." Sam just shrugged in a 'you're on your own' kind of way. "Fine then, have it your way." He turned back to me, a look of triumph in his eyes. "You are herby demoted from your previous status of shotgun. You must now be forevermore punished by the shame of the backseat."

I let out an over the top gasp, hands covering my mouth and all. "You wouldn't." But the look he gave me told me he would. "Then you leave me no choice. I will call upon Gabriel and make him turn your precious car into a junkyard worthy pickup truck, complete with Hello Kitty stickers."

"You threaten Baby you threaten me. Be prepared grasshopper, for you have just declared war on the prankster king." He crossed his arms with a smug look on his face. Sam, who was watching from the sidelines, was struggling to hold in his laughter.

"You might think you have won, but I have Sam on my side. Two heads is better than one." I dragged an unwilling Sam to my side in an effort to emphasize my point.

"Cas!" Dean called, not having to wait more than two seconds before the angel appeared right behind him. "Well I have an angel, and that counts as two. So now we outnumber you."

"Gabriel!" I didn't have to wait long before he materialized lying on the bed and licking a lollipop. "Well I have an archangel and he counts as three. So five against three, I think we win. Again." Now it was my turn to look triumphant.

Cas tilted his head and squinted his eyes. He looked confused. He opened his mouth, presumably to ask Dean what the real reason he was summoned for was, when the hunter in question started talking. "Come on, we have a job to do." He glanced down at his watch and grabbed his keys before storming out the door. Apparently Dean was a sore loser. 

"Is that really the only reason you made us come here? To settle some childish argument? Because let me tell you I have a very busy schedule." Gabriel raised his eyebrow questioningly. He didn't seem to mind too much, considering he was still looking perfectly comfortable reclining on the bed and eating his candy. 

I rolled my eyes. "If it was such a burden then why did you two even bother to come?" 

He shrugged. "Figured that it would be important, or at least interesting."

Castiel spoke at almost the same time. "I always come when Dean calls." 

Sam made a weird face as he processed the answer. "How nice of you Cas. Ya know maybe someday you might think of offering me the same courtesy."

Again the angel tilted his head. "What do you mean Sam?"

"I mean that I could be trying to call you and pray to you for hours and get nothing but if Dean so much as sneezes you are there in the blink of an eye." He crosses his arms, giving his friend a knowing look.

Cas looked down; apparently hurt that Sam would think he favored his brother. "I am sorry Sam, I was not aware it bothered you. Like I said before, Dean and I do share a more profound bound. But you are my friend too; I do not want you to think I would not be there to help you."

"Awe, how sweet. What a nice friendly bonding moment. Now if you ladies will excuse me I have to teach a few unfortunate souls a lesson." Gabriel was about to pop out when he noticed the almost identical looks Sam and Cas were giving him. "Don't worry, no killing. Haven't in a while. Don't ya trust me?" And with that he was gone.

Not too long after Cas also disappeared to who knows where and I was in the car with the brothers. "So since your cover is a new agent, you don't have to worry about talking too much. Feel free to ask questions if you think it is relevant and write down anything you think will help." Sam handed me a notepad and pen. "You ready?" I nodded, sounded easy enough for now. "Good, cause here we are."

Dean parked the impala in front of a well kept suburb house. It looked perfectly normal from the outside, hard to imagine this was the house of freak ceiling accident man. We walked up the front steps and Dean had his hand raised to knock when the door opened to reveal a little girl about eight years old and long hair covering most of her face. Her mother stood right behind her.

Noticing the boys were reaching for their badges to show her, I quickly did the same. "Hello Mrs. Onda. Agents Cliff, Marley, and Jones." He pointed to each of us in turn as he introduced us. "Can we ask you a few questions?"

She nodded. I noticed she looked somewhat unsure of her decision. She squatted down so she was eye level with her daughter. "Can you ride the bus today sweetie?" She nodded. "Okay. Have a good day at school Maddie." The girl ran around us and ran down to the bus stop. "Come in, please. And you can feel free to call me Deborah, or Deb if you prefer. " She ushered us inside and to the sitting room, getting us all a glass of tea. "What do you need to know?"

"Your husband, Jackson, the reports say you found the body." Sam spoke gently, comfortingly. She nodded and I couldn't help but think her sadness was at least a little forced. "Can you tell us exactly what you saw, in your own words?"

"I was picking Maddie up from school; he was watching the T.V. up in our room. When we got home I went upstairs to check on him and see if he needed anything. What I found was horrible." She bit back a sob. I felt bad for the woman, but I still couldn't shake the feeling that she was acting. Not lying, just acting. Like she didn't mind that much that her husband was gone… "The fan blades were embedded in the walls, one of them straight through his chest, keeping him attached to the wall. There was so much blood… So much blood…"

I gently placed my hand on her upper arm, nodding sympathetically at her, silently urging her on. She smiled thankfully at me. "What did you do then?" I asked quietly.

"Maddie was still downstairs having a snack; she didn't know anything had happened. I didn't want her to see what had happened so I called our neighbors and asked if they could watch her for a few hours and promising to explain later. They said she could stay over and I called the cops. They did what they could and apparently sent you to finish the job. I don't know what to tell you, it was a freak accident, that's all. As for my daughter, she knows her dad is gone but I haven't told her the details. I didn't want to give my little girl nightmares."

Dean nodded. "Thank you for your time Mrs. Onda, but I think we have everything we need for the moment. If you can think of anything else don't hesitate to give us a call." He handed her a card and she thanked us and we were off.

"Hey Dean?" Sam asked once we had gotten back into the car. Dean made a sound of acknowledgement, urging him to finish his train of thought. "Did you notice anything about her daughter Maddie?"

Dean started the engine and started driving. "No, why? Was there something wrong with her?"

Sam shook his head. "I just thought she had a black eye. Looked like she had gotten punched or something. Maybe it was nothing, just a trick of the light."

But I wasn't so sure. I tried to piece the clues together in my mind as we drove to the next house.

The other interviews seemed to go a lot like the first. Questioning the spouses of the deceased and getting the details. All of them seemed to happen while the other parent was picking up the other student from school. Also they seemed to have to fake at least a little bit of the sadness, that wasn't normal. If someone you love enough to marry dies normally you don't have to pretend to be heartbroken.

There didn't seem to be much else in common with the other victims. They all had kids that went to that elementary school, but they were all in different grades. The Lego man and the barbequed man both had kid in the same fifth grade class, the suffocated by pillows woman had a child in sixth grade, and Maddie was in third grade. None of the kid's seemed to be friends outside of class and the parents didn't know each other. It had to be something though; the brothers had said ghosts normally follow some sort of pattern.

I had suggested not bothering to find the pattern, just killing the ghost and leaving, it would make the job go by quicker. But the boys had argued that the pattern could help us find who the ghost was. And it could tell them who the next victim would be, so I agreed to do it their way. They were the experts after all, I was just tagging along.

Our next stop was Hawley Elementary School. It was kind of small for a school, must not have a lot of students. Dean turned to Sam and they had one of their brotherly telepathic conversation things. It kind of creped me out when they did that. "Okay so you get the general idea of what to do right?" I nodded in response to Sam's question. "Good. So to make this faster we will each go to a different teacher for the interviews. Think you can handle that on your own?" again I nodded. The boys got out of the car and I followed them into the building.

We flashed our fake badges at the lady working at the check in desk and she gave us each an approved visitor's sticker. She told us the room numbers and that the kids had recess soon so if they weren't in the room they were outside watching the students. We thanked her and went off in our separate directions.

I knocked on the door before opening it slightly to see that the kids were getting lined up to go outside. I spotted Maddie at the back of the line. She caught my eye and ran up to me. "I saw you earlier today. You were talking to my mommy. Is everything okay?"

I bent down to her level and smiled reassuringly at her. "Everything is just fine; we just had some questions to ask her." I frowned slightly when I noticed Sam had been right. "Your name is Maddie right?" She nodded. "Tell me Maddie, why do you have a black eye?"

She looked panicked for a moment but recovered quickly. "I was riding my bike and I ran into our mailbox." She was a good liar, I'll give her that.

The bell rang and I stood up and got out of the way to allow the kids to run outside. I waited for the students to file out and started walking with the teacher. I noticed her name plate on her desk read 'Mrs. White.'

"Hi, I'm special agent Holly Jones. I came to ask you a few questions if that's okay?" I asked and showed her the badge.

She glanced at me and nodded. "The office sent me a text alerting me you were on your way up. I saw you talking to Maddie so I take it this is about her father's unfortunate death?" We followed the kids outside So Mrs. White could keep an eye on them and make sure they stayed safe.

I nodded. "Yes, that's right. I trust you know most of the details from the papers." She gave a nod of agreement. "But this meeting is more about Maddie. How has she been taking this?"

I glanced over to Mrs. White who had her eyes trained on the field where the young girl in question was playing with a few friends. "Surprisingly she seems to be taking it rather well. But to be fair she didn't see her father that much to be able to miss him. From what I have heard from her mother during conferences he is away on business trips a lot and is usually at the office. And on his way home he would stop by the local bar, so she would be in bed by the time he got home. My sister is a bartender and she says he is the one that keeps them in business. And from what I have heard he is not the nicest drunk."

"What do you mean?" I had a theory of course, but I had to make sure. I had to keep her talking; we were finally getting something here. I kind of felt bad for taking advantage of the teachers kind and sharing personality, but we had to get rid of the ghost so I reasoned with myself that it had to be done.

"My sister told me stories of him getting into countless bar fights. I met him once on back to school night. He was not the kindest man either. He was strict and harsh. Not the kind of man you wanted to mess with, I don't even want to imagine what he was like with a bit of alcohol in his system." So he threw punches when intoxicated. But did the abuse ever leave the bar and enter his home? That black eye sure did not look like just a bicycle accident.

That was all I needed to hear. I took down the notes and asked a few more questions to make me sound more like a member of the FBI. I thanked her and left just as the kids were lining up to go back into class.

"You guys find anything?" Dean asked once we were all sedated back in his car. "I basically just got a repeated of what the parents said, didn't get any new information."

Sam pulled out a paper from his inside pocket. "Yeah, I got a theory but I don't know if I'm right. Mr. Umback printed this out for me. He said their last principle died over the winter holidays. Apparently he was the best principle this school has had sense it was built. He worked there for thirty six years, so he knew all the staff and everything. He made a point of getting to know each of the students individually. I think he might be our ghost. But I'm still not sure why he chooses the victims he did." He frowned in thought.

"I think I might have an answer for that." I spoke up, somewhat shyly. I hoped I was right, I hated being wrong and I had no defiant proof. The boys looked at me expectantly. "Well Maddie had that black eye. And according to her teacher her father was not the nicest man. It was implied that he was abusive. So if this principle guy took enough time to get to know the students it would make sense that he would care about them right? So maybe he was going after all the parents that had abused their kids."

Dean nodded, processing the information. "That makes sense. The kid of the barbequed man looked like he had cigarette burns all over his arms, and the Lego mans kid was wearing long sleeves, so he might have been covering up bruises and scars."

"So if the ghost is killing off the parents in the same way they abused their children, which would mean Mrs. Patrick somehow deprived her son of air. Attempted drowning, suffocation, something. Nothing that would leave a physical mark though, her son looked physically unharmed." Sam shuddered at the thought. "I can't even imagine what would have had to be going through their minds to harm their own child."

I nodded in agreement. "My parents would never have laid a finger on me in a harmful way. Especially not at such a young age."

Sam nodded in agreement but I noticed that Dean said nothing. His eyes were focused on the road as gripped the wheel tight and started driving.

We made it back to the hotel quickly and were once again all gathered in Sam and Dean's room. I picked up the book I had started earlier and started reading. With the boys permission of course. I was curious about them and wanted to learn all I could about them, and if that involved reading the prophets' book then so be it. The boys were kind of like me, they liked to keep things bottled up. So I had a better chance reading about them then for them to tell me everything that happened to them. And the books were really well written, it was easy to get lost in the pages and pretend it was just a fictional universe with fictional characters even though Sam and Dean were right in front of me.

The boys were crowded around Sam's laptop, digging up information on the principle. Not too long after Sam announced they found the cemetery where he was buried.

"Cas! Gabriel! Get your feathery asses down here." Dean called, looking towards the ceiling. I raised my eyebrows at him, doubting it would work. Surprisingly it did though, and there was a sound of wings flapping before the angels appeared. 

"Yes Dean? You called?" Cas asked after appearing, invading the hunters bubble more than was necessary.

"Yeah. We found where our ghost is, Sam and I were just about to go ice the bastard. We need you two to watch over Abby, just in case something goes wrong."

Gabriel eyed me, a thoughtful expression on his face. "She looks tough, she doesn't need any bodyguards. But if you're sure about leaving me alone in a room with a pretty lady then I won't complain."

I would have been flattered that he called me pretty if I hadn't known he was just saying it to get on Dean's nerves. As predicted, the hunter let out a growl, "Don't even think about touching her or I will kill you." 

Sam stepped between them before anything got too serious. "Calm down, both of you. Besides, he won't be alone with her. Cas is here too." He tried to re3ason with his brother. Dean continued glaring at the angel. "Okay, how about you go wait in the car before you kill someone." He steered Dean out of the door. 

Sam shook his head, frowning at Gabriel. "You really should know better than to purposefully aggravate my brother by now. One day he might not be kidding. All he has to do is ask to borrow Castiel's angel blade and its over."

Gabriel sighed and sat on the bed. "You worry too much Sammy, it's all good. I'm a freaking archangel; I know how to stay alive." 

Sam rolled his eyes and walked out the door, mumbling something about "Don't call me Sammy."

"He is right though." I said, looking at the archangel. "You should at least try to pretend to be nice to him, considering he is the one letting you stay."

Castiel walked over and turned to me. "Sam lets him stay too. And for whatever reason so do I. Dean is outnumbered, he does not have the power to make Gabriel leave. As great as Dean is he can hold a grudge, and because of this he chooses not to see that my brother has changed in his ways. Although I suspect he does not hate my brother as much as he likes to pretend."

I smiled slightly. If Cas could see there was a chance of them becoming friends then it wasn't a lost cause after all. It would just take a lot of time. "Well obviously. Why get rid of the source of free pie?" I joked. 

Gabriel placed a hand to his heart, pretending to be hurt. "Why Miss Abigall, I am offended. That is all you think I am good for? Creating desserts? Oh how your words wound me. Woe is me!"

I smirked at him and rolled my eyes, deciding to play along for a little while. "Oh good knight of heaven, I did not mean to wound thee! However can I make up for my treacherous deed?"

"You cannot for the damage has already been done. And to think I battled countless demons to get to you!"

Cas stared at us quizzically, silently questioning our sanity. "Gabriel you are not injured, and if you are trying to make her feel guilty I do not think this is the correct approach."

Gabriel gave a long dramatic sigh. "Sorry about my brother, he just doesn't get the whole socializing thing." He walked over to Castiel, placing a hand on his shoulder and shaking his head disapprovingly. "My dear little brother, how many times must I explain to you that sometimes it doesn't kill ya to loosen up a bit?"

The dark haired angel glared at Gabriel. "I just think we should stay alert in case something goes wrong and Dean calls for our assistance."

Gabriel smirked knowingly at Cas. "Of course, whatever would you do if your favorite human got a splinter?"

"You know I do think Cas seems to favor Dean. I wonder why?" I poked Cas in the side teasingly. It was painfully obvious that there was something going on between the angel and the hunter.

Cas shifted his weight, an uncomfortable look on his face. "That is only because Dean and I share a more profound bond, as it was me who gripped him tight and raised him from perdition. I would think you would know all about that Gabriel." He said, shifting his gaze from his brother to me.

"Stop trying to change the subject. Besides, I just met Gabriel. You have known Dean for a while. Enough time to develop feelings perhaps." I hinted, still trying to figure out their relationship.

Castiel squinted his eyes, probably still trying to figure out the motives behind our questions. "Yes I have feelings for Dean. And for Sam. They are my friends; I do not see how it is unusual to care for them."

Gabriel rolled his eyes, realizing we would be getting nothing out of Cas for the time being. I shrugged in defeat; I would give up my little quest. For now anyways.

I plopped myself back on the bed and opened the book, trying to focus on the words. It would have been a lot easier had Gabriel not been 'reading' over my shoulder and eating his candy as loud as humanly possible. I turned to him, smiling sweetly. My voice was dripping with fake sweetness. "I'm terribly sorry to bother you, but would you mind _not_ getting your candy crumbs all over my book?"

"Actually I'm quite comfortable where I am." I glared at him. "Okay, I'm moving, calm down." He stood up and walked to the other end of the room. "Better?" He asked sarcastically.

I shook my head. "No, your presence is rather distracting. Maybe if you left I could be able to actually get some reading done."

He looked at me with big pleading eyes. "Don't kick me out, Sam and Dean would kill me if they found out I left you alone with my brother. Can I stay please? Pretty pretty please? With a cherry on top?"

I sighed, already giving in. I never could stay that mad at someone for very long, especially when they gave me the puppy eyes. And Gabriel seemed to have mastered those. "I don't see how the physical appearance of the please makes any difference. But I guess I forgive you, you can stay. Just stop giving me the look of a puppy that just got locked outside in the rain. Deal?"

He smiled happily, bouncing back over to where I was. "Deal." I smiled back at him; he did look a lot better with his happy smile than he did with the kicked puppy expression.

I put the book down, giving up on it for the time being. Gabriel wasn't going to let me concentrate on it anyways so why bother? "Well this is fun." I said sarcastically after a moment of silence.

Gabriel bit his lip, presumably thinking of something to do to entertain us till the boys got back.

Castiel, who had seemed perfectly comfortable, standing in the corner of the room and listening for any prayers from the Winchesters; suddenly turned to us, a worried expression on his face. "Dean is calling, I must go." With the sound of fluttering wings he was gone.

I turned to Gabriel, suddenly panicking. "What do you think happened? Are they okay? What of something went wrong? Should you go help them too?"

He took a few steps closer to me, placing his hands on my shoulders and looking me in the eye. He started talking slowly, comfortingly. "Don't worry, they are probably fine. If it was anything serious they would have called us both. They have faced way worse than a stupid ghost in their lifetime, I'm sure they are just fine. Okay?"

I took a deep breath. "Like what?" Not that I didn't believe him, I did, I just need some reassurance. In the short time I had known the boys I had grown attached to them. They were like the brothers I never had but always wanted.

"Like me. Trust me; an angry spirit is nothing to them." He gently pulled me into his chest in a light hug.

I took a few seconds to calm myself down before pulling away slightly. "Thank you." I whispered. He nodded and we walked over to the bed to wait for the boys. My hands were tightly clenched in my lap and my foot was tapping the ground quickly, a sure sign I was nervous. Gabriel rubbed small circled into my back in an attempt to calm me down.

As soon as the hotel room opened and I saw that all three were safe and in one piece, I jumped up and threw my arms around them, struggling slightly with Sam as he was a lot taller than me. I pulled away quickly, embarrassed at my behavior. "Your okay, you're all okay. What happened?"

Sam smiled at my concern. "It's no big deal really. Right before we torched the bones it threw me into one of the large tombstones and broke my arm. We just called Cas to heal me before we came back all bruised. We didn't want to worry you."

"Well next time make sure you tell Cas to tell us it isn't serious, we were worried out of our minds." I playfully whacked him on the arm, too relieved that he was okay to actually be mad.

Dean chuckled slightly. "Will do princess. Now, who wants food? I think I saw a decent looking diner not too far from here."

Gabriel stepped forward, shaking his head disapprovingly. "Sorry Deano, that's not good enough. This was Abby's first case with you boys, don't you think the poor girl deserves better than some crappy diner burger for a celebration meal?" We all looked at him slightly confused; trying to figure out what he was getting at. He rolled his eyes and raised his hand, cutting the silence with a loud snap of his fingers. Tables appeared all over the room, each one with different types of food. Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Seafood, you name it and it was there. And right in the center of the dessert table was a large bowl of…

"Sour skittles!" I exclaimed happily as I made my way towards the candy.

Gabriel smiled at my excitement. "She goes for the dessert first, I like the way she thinks." He grabbed his own plate of sugary sweets and plopped down on the bed to eat.

The other boys didn't need much more encouragement before getting their own fair share of the food. Even Castiel grabbed a hamburger, claiming they made him 'very happy.'

The food was great, better than any restaurant food I had ever eaten. Ah, the perks of being friends with an archangel. But of course there were only five of us and several tables filled with never ending food, there was no way we would be able to finish it in one meal. Once we were all happy with the amount of food we got Gabriel got rid of it the same way it came, with a simple snap of his fingers. Surprisingly even Dean thanked the angel for the fantastic meal.

"But seriously, we could have been eating like this the whole time. Why hold out on us like this?" Sam asked, not exactly complaining but not exactly complementing the food either.

Gabriel shrugged like it was no big deal. "I didn't want you getting fat. It kinda hard to run from demons if you have to stop every thirty feet for air."

Sam, Gabriel, and I were sitting on one of the beds and facing Dean and Cas who were on the other. "So what now? You guys got rid of this ghost so where does the next hunt take us?" I asked.

Dean shrugged. "Not sure yet. We will probably stay in town till tomorrow at least, just to make sure it really is gone and everyone is okay. Then we hit the road and look for a job. Preferably one that is close-ish to where we are so we don't have to drive as far and can get there quickly before too many others are killed." I nodded, sounded like a reasonable plan.

The ghost was gone; everyone was safe, and we got a fantastic diner. Over all the day went by pretty good. So why did I still feel like I was forgetting something?

I was back in my hotel room, lying on my back in the bed with my eyes closed and pretending to sleep. I was tired, both physically and mentally. It seemed my body was still drained of all energy from being in Hell. I wonder how long that will last. I'll have to ask Dean later.

I groaned out loud as I realized I wouldn't be able to be getting sleep any time soon. I sat up and turned on the light, rubbing my eyes and letting them adjust. I almost thought of asking Gabriel to come and do what he did last night, making me sleep with no nightmares. But I didn't he had already done way too much for me and I didn't want to seem ungrateful.

I didn't need the sound of wings to tell me he was here, I could feel it. I could sense those incredible gold colored eyes staring into the back of my head. "Gabriel. What are you doing here? I was about to go to sleep."

He raised his eyebrow at me, unbelievingly. "Right, of course you were. That's why the light is on. Relax, I'm not being stalkerish, I just wanna talk. Is that okay?"

I sighed, realizing he wouldn't be leaving without getting what he came here for. I patted the bed space next to me, moving over to the side to make room for him. "What's up?"

He sat down, stretching his legs out on the bed. "Look, Abby, I might not be the best at reading human emotions but I think I am right in assuming that your little freaking out earlier was not completely just worrying about Sam or Dean."

I groaned, I did _not_ want to talk about this right now. Especially to an angel I just met who probably didn't care about my pathetic human issues in the first place.

He probably sensed that I was about to protest and placed a finger to my lips, effectively shutting me up. "Now of course I did some digging about your past before I pulled you out of my dear brother's fiery layer and I found some interesting stuff. Like the fact that you went willingly with no protesting."

"I knew what I had gotten myself into when I made the deal, I knew the consequences. What's your point? What does this have to do with Sam or Dean?"

"Well they have been hunting practically their whole life, as you probably know from talking to them and reading their books." I nodded, still not sure where exactly he was taking this. "And you should know that a ghost is not at all challenging for hunters of their experience. So my theory is that you panic earlier had nothing to do with the boys at all, but more to do with why you sold your soul in the first place."

"Dylan." I whispered, more to myself than to Gabriel.

"Bingo, exactly. He died facing a ghost and when Cas disappeared all nervous like you remembered that night in the forest."

"Okay, so I got a few flashbacks. What's your point?" It was late and I was tired, I didn't have time for his games right now. I just wanted him to get to the point so I could try to sleep.

"My point is you were distracted by your past. And the only way to get past that is to face it." He looked at me expectantly, waiting for a response.

"What exactly are you suggesting?" I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously.

"I'm just saying I could help. I could bring you back to your home town; let you see your friends again. Tie up any loose ends and say your final goodbyes. If you want. When you are ready of course, no rush."

I smiled gratefully at him; he could actually be really sweet and thoughtful when he wanted to be. "I might just have to take you up on that someday."

He smiled back, happy to have done something right. "Goodnight Abigall."

"G'night." I mumbled sleepily as I sunk back into the bed. Gabriel reached behind him and turned out the light, leaving the room in darkness again.

This time I didn't have to ask for the no nightmares, he seemed to read my mind as he snapped his fingers and I could feel myself slipping deeper and deeper into the beautiful world of sleep. Right before I fully fell asleep, I could have sworn I heard him whisper something along the lines of "One day I will find out what makes you so special Abigall Spiers."


	4. 4 Adjusting

_**A/N:**_ New chapter, yay! Hope you all like and feel free to leave a review. Thanks to EmmaMarie, and anna3311234 for your reviews for my last chapter.

_**Disclaimer:**_ I do not own this. I do not own anything. Not even my own soul. I sold that long ago. 

We only ended up staying in town till a little after noon. A friend of the boys called, Bobby Singer, and he needed their help with a case. Sam said that Bobby said that it was a shape shifter. Seeing as they already had all the information and the only thing left was the actual killing part, I would most likely just be hanging around the house for a few hours while they went out and saved the world. Yay, I can't wait to be bored and useless. Oh well, if I got too bored I could probably just call Gabriel to entertain me, he usually did.

We had been in the car for two days, Sam and Dean took turns driving. It was around eight at night and we were almost at Sioux Falls, having entered South Dakota not too long ago. Sam was dozing off in the passenger seat and I was curled up in the back with the second book of the series, having finished the first one a few hours ago. Castiel and Gabriel, being angels, claimed that the car was too slow when they could just fly there in the blink of an eye, and told us to call them when we made it and they would meet us there.

Dean had been on the phone, letting their hunter friend know we were almost there. About fifteen minutes later we were pulling into the driveway of a blue painted house. There was an oldish not really that old guy wearing a ball cap and standing on the front porch waiting for us. My guess was this was Bobby Singer, seeing as the boys hadn't mentioned anyone else living with him.

Sam and Dean got out of the car, leaving the bags in. I followed their lead and walked behind them up to the house. I watched as their faces lit up with smiles as they embraced the older hunter. From what I observed and what I had read, their real father wasn't around much. My guess was this Bobby guy was their father figure.

Once he was done greeting the boys he turned to me, eyeing me curiously. "So this is her? Abigall Spiers, the one Gabriel rescued." I nodded shyly, not sure how he would react to me. He smiled and held out his hand. "Welcome to the family." I let out a relived smile as I shook his hand. He might seem a bit gruff around the edges, but I had a feeling he softened up once you got to know him.

Once we had brought all the bags in and gotten comfortable, we were seated around his kitchen table, a beer in front of each of us. Gabriel and Castiel had appeared not too long after we arrived and were standing near the table, Cas next to Dean and Gabriel between Sam and I.

"So as far as I know the shifter is pretending to be Melissa, the children's doctor. I'm not sure why she chose this town or why she is choosing her victims, but the important thing is that she is stopped. My plan is to go out early tomorrow morning and kill her quickly, before she checks in for her shift." Bobby said, debriefing us on the situation. The boys nodded, agreeing. The faster the monster was killed the more people were saved the happier everyone was.

Bobby ordered us some take out and within the hour we had all eaten and headed up to the guest rooms, ready for bed. The boys had an early start tomorrow so they needed all the sleep they could get.

I walked out of the bathroom to see Gabriel already sitting on my bed in my chosen room, eating a slice of cake. I rolled my eyes and sat next to him, taking the fork out of his hands and taking a bite before he could protest. I smiled innocently and swallowed the chocolate desert. "Hey Gabriel."

He rolled his eyes, still sad that I had taken his food. It wasn't even a big bite either; he was just making way to big deal of it. Drama queen. "I worked hard snapping my fingers to create that you know."

"Uh huh, I'm sure. So what brings you to my room this time?"

He shrugged, taking a bite of the cake. "Dean hated me and Bobby doesn't trust me. And you seem to like me more than Sam so I came to where my presence would be most appreciated."

I nodded, fair enough. "Okay. Well hate to break it to ya but I haven't gotten much sleep these past few days and I can't sleep in a car. So I was planning on going to sleep and sleeping in tomorrow as I have nothing better to do."

He nodded. "Fine, just leave me to be all bored by myself. Ah well you deserve sleep. Goodnight Abigall Spiers." And with a snap of his fingers I was out.

Five months. That's how long I had been out of hell and with Sam and Dean. It was a little after the middle of August and by now I had grown quite used to the boys company. It didn't take the boys long to become as attached to me as I had become to them, even if they wouldn't admit it out loud. But actions spoke louder than words. They would protect me and I would do whatever I could to keep them safe, even if all I could do was research, considering they _still_ wouldn't let me join them for the actual hunt part of a hunt.

The three men and two angels would occasionally stare at me like they were trying to figure me out, but as soon as they noticed I was looking they would quickly look away and act all innocent. Whenever I tried to ask them about it they would brush it off and the conversation would soon die until someone changed the subject. I didn't blame them though, I was confused too. I still didn't know why I had been brought out of Hell, still didn't know what made me so special. Countless times I had woken up to see Gabriel staring at me as though I was a puzzle and he was trying to see where I fit in. But he never seemed to regret his decision on dragging me out. I even had the guts to ask him about it once, even if I was slightly intoxicated when I did. And maybe it was just because he didn't think I would remember the conversation come tomorrow, but he had told me it was one of the best decisions of his life. And whether it was for his sake or mine I did pretend to have forgotten those shared words.

Castiel and I eventually got used to each other; it was no longer long awkward silences when we were alone. Slowly as Dean started to trust or at least tolerate Gabriel more, Castiel started to keep an eye on me while Gabriel joined the boys on their noble quest to rid the world of all evil. After a while I figured out Cas was actually pretty decent to have a conversation with, even I he didn't always understand a reference and sometimes took things too literally. But he was getting better. When the others were out and it was just Cas and I, I would sometimes pop in a movie so Cas could understand what Dean was talking about when he made a joke. The long silences we shared were now comfortable, friendly. I actually almost accidently got him drunk once, making the angel slightly hint at his hidden feelings for the green eyed hunter. It was obvious; Sam, Gabriel, Bobby and I all say it. It seemed like the only ones blind to it where Cas and Dean. As much as I wanted to play matchmaker and just get them together already, I knew that this was something they would have to figure out themselves.

They trained me though, like they promised. Between jobs we would stop by Bobby's for a few days and Sam and Dean would take turns getting me used to handling various weapons and defending myself. Gabriel was always around to heal me if I accidently cut my arm or something. And unfortunately I'm not as graceful as I would have liked to be so that happened quite a lot. But with more practice I slowly got better. After the physical part I would go inside and cool down before joining Bobby. He taught me about different demons and monsters, how to identify them and kill them. He taught me a bit of Latin for the various exorcisms and made sure I knew how to make any sigils or devils traps I would need.

I would occasionally train with Gabriel too, although not as much. He would use his trickster and archangel powers to make a scenario so I would actually have to use what I learned, the fighting and exorcisms and all. He would create a new unfamiliar setting that I would have to work with what resources I had, and find a way to go without the ones I didn't. He would make fake demons that I would have to kill or exorcise, depending on the situation. But they could hurt me just as easily as I could hurt them. If things got too intense or it was obvious I would lose, which honestly wasn't as often as I would have thought it was and became far less often over time, Gabriel would just snap his fingers and make it all disappear. I didn't mind though, it was good practice. If it were up to me I would have trained with him a lot more because his methods seemed to be the most helpful, but I would be lucky to get one on one with him once a week. I tried to bring it up multiple times that his way of training was by far more beneficial than the others because I had to actually use what I was learning and put my knowledge to the test, but he would just casually brush me off. Yeah, we had become pretty close friends and I guess I could see that he didn't hate me, maybe even almost cared about me enough to not want me to die, but considering they weren't really real monsters I didn't see the big deal.

The life of a hunter wasn't too terribly hard to get used to, but then again I had not actually killed anything yet. I would have liked to, just to see if I could, but last time I brought it up Dean went all big brother mode on me and refused my request of joining them. What's the point of learning all this stuff if I never actually get to use it? I had been improving a lot lately; surely I could handle a hunt. Maybe I wasn't ready to be going in alone yet, but defiantly for back up at least. I hated sitting on my butt and worrying constantly while waiting for them to return to Bobby's house or the hotel we were at. I hated being useless.

Currently I was in another training session with Gabriel. He was hesitant though, considering last time I fell off the cliff because I tripped on a pinecone and he had just barely managed to snap be back to safety in time. I was actually doing pretty good, almost had the creature captured before my clumsiness almost got me killed. But I guess I had annoyed him enough with my constant begging for him to agree to give me another lesson.

I was in a post apocalyptic wasteland, abandoned cars and crumbling buildings all around me. Dead bodies littered the streets, vultures picking at the flesh. Okay, this situation was a little too real. Especially the smell. Seriously, it wouldn't have killed the angel to _not_ make it smell like death would it?

I crouched behind a wrecked car, peeking around it at my prey. I had taken down most of the nest already, but there were still four left. The small family of vampires was currently surrounding a few bodies and trying to suck any remaining blood out of the already dead victims. I gripped the handmade machete tightly and slowly tried to sneak up on them. I swung and decapitated the first while the other three were too busy with their food. But of course they heard the head hit the ground. I held my breath as they all whipped their heads around, glaring at me.

They ran towards me and I held my ground, knowing I couldn't outrun them. Somehow between trying to stay alive and swinging the weapon I managed to kill off a second one. The male hissed and threw me into the wall. Huh, guess the vamp chick I just beheaded was his mate or something. Oops. He grabbed my by the collar and pushed me against the wall, my feet a good six inches above the ground. As his face came closer to my neck I struggled to get the small hedge clippers from my back pocket. They weren't big enough to do much damage, but they could buy me a few seconds at least. Quickly and with barely a second thought I brought them up, successfully culling off two of his fingers. Just in time too, he was so close to biting me.

He howled in pain and dropped me, cradling his injured hand. As predicted it was just enough time for me to drop to the ground and roll to my dropped machete. He lunged and I swung, three down one to go. We stood for a second staring at each other, each trying to size each other up. He had just seen me finish off his whole nest, it was logical for him to not underestimate me. We slowly began circling each other, waiting for the other to make the first move.

Suddenly my face morphed into one of complete and utter terror as my eyes focused on something just over the last vampires shoulder. My voice was shaking as much as my hands. "No, this isn't right. I killed you!"

The vampire turned, expecting to see a member of his nest come to back him up. As soon as he started turning I knew I had to make my move, he would figure out soon enough I was acting. I took the three necessary strides to come close enough to jump onto his back, bringing the weapon to his throat ready to end him. Of course he wasn't completely stupid; he tried to shake me off. But it only made his death slower, not stopping it. My blade was already halfway through his neck by the time he had noticed he had been tricked, and his thrashing did nothing but make my cut not as clean as it could have been.

The head slid off the shoulders and the body collapsed. I stood up and moved away from it, panting for breath. I did it. I took down an entire nest alone. Granted they were fake, but I did it! And I hardly had any wounds so over all I did semi decently. I just hoped it would be enough to convince Sam and Dean.

I opened my eyes and turned around to see I was back At Bobby's, surrounded by the old cars. Gabriel must have already taken the illusion off; I was just too distracted to notice. Sam and Dean were outside with us, watching. Bobby was peaking through the window, looking impressed. Usually one or both of the boys would join me so I could get used to watching their back and get used to them watching mine, but this time I had them sit out. I had to prove a point.

Gabriel slowly started clapping, stepping forward to inspect the damage. He frowned when he noticed how bloodstained my clothing was.

I sighed, knowing where this was going. "Don't worry, it's not mine. You know that."

He snapped his fingers, instantly ridding me of the half dried blood, leaving my clothes as good as new. "I know I just wish you wouldn't get yourself so beaten up."

I rolled my eyes. "I just got thrown into a wall, no big deal. Didn't break anything and the bruises will heal. I'll be fine."

Thankfully Sam came to my defiance. "She is right you know, she did do great. All this training is helping her, especially with you being a trickster and all and making it as real as possible."

Gabriel's hands clenched, he was getting angry. But at whom I couldn't tell. "Well then maybe I should stop making it so realistic if it is going to get her hurt!"

I stepped forward, placing a hand on his arm to try to calm him down. It helped a little; at least his breathing went back to a semi normal pattern. "Gabriel calm down, it's okay. It's good that you do it like you do so I know what to expect, it's not your fault I was stupid enough to get hurt. Just calm down, okay?"

He nodded, taking a deep breath. "I need some air, I'll be back later." With the sound of fluttering wings he was gone.

Dean gave me a knowing smirk as he watched our little interaction. "What's that look for?" I questioned as I walked over and sat on the edge of one of the hoods of one of the old cars.

He tried to play it cool, be all nonchalant about it. But it wasn't working. I had known Dean for a few months by now, I knew that look. That was his I-know-something-you-don't look. It actually got a little annoying after a while. "Oh nothing. Just that Gabriel here seems to be rather protective of you."

I eyed him suspiciously, wondering where this was going. "No more than you or Sam being protective of me. We are friends; it's kind of a good thing for friends to care if their friend is hurt." I almost laughed out loud as I realized that my words were almost exactly identical to Castiel's when Gabriel and I had brought up his relationship with Dean. But Gabriel and I, our relationship didn't work like theirs. We were friends, nothing more. Not like it would work out anyways, him being a powerful and immortal archangel and me being nothing more than a mere pathetic killable human.

Sam and Dean both gave me the same identical disbelieving look. I rolled my eyes; I didn't have time for their teasing right now. I had something actually kind of important to talk to them about. I decided to drop the topic for now. "Anyways, I kind of had something I wanted to talk over with you boys. Come on, let's go inside."

I sat at the circular table between Sam and Dean and across from Bobby. Cas had gone in search of his older brother to make sure he wasn't getting himself into trouble. I stared down at my hands nervously; Gabriel was supposed to be here when I talked to them about this. He was supposed to back me up and help the others see reason, which was the plan. I had been talking to him before training started and he had agreed, I had been counting on him to be here with me. But he just had to lose his temper like that. The boys seated around the table sat patiently, waiting until I was ready.

I took a deep breath, trying to convince myself that I could do this without Gabriel. "Okay, well as you all saw today I am getting better. I have been practicing and learning and I think I am ready to go out into the real world with you guys and help."

It was quiet for a few seconds as they processed what I was asking. Sam looked uncertain and Bobby had a protective father stare fixed on me. Dean was the first one to speak. "Absolutely not, no way. We are not going to let you risk your life."

"Oh but its okay when you three do it? You saw me today, I did well! I can handle the real thing, I know I can. If you just gave me the chance to prove that I can do it…" Okay, so maybe my persuasive skills could have used a lot of work. But hey, I never did put up a good argument when I was panicking or under stress.

"Abby listen to us, we know you are a skilled hunter, we saw what you did to those fake vamps today and we have been watching you battle fake monsters for months, but that's just the thing. They were fake." Sam tried argue, keeping a cool head unlike Dean.

"Yeah but Gabriel made the situation as real as he could. Killing a real monster won't be much harder." I pleaded with him, trying to use my puppy dog eyes against him. "Look I can do this, I can help. Please, let me do what I can."

Bobby sighed, getting up and grabbing a beer. He sat back down, taking a large gulp. I wasn't sure what to expect from him yet, so far he hadn't shown any emotions to indicate if he was on my side or not. Dean was sitting with his fists clenched and lips pursed while Sam looked to be having an internal battle with himself, trying to think over all the pros and cons of each outcome. We all stared at Bobby, waiting for him to state his opinion.

"I think," He said pausing to choose his words, "That as much as I hate to admit it, it's Abigall's decision. It is her choice to hunt or not. Even if you boys don't let her go with you, then she will just go off on her own and do something stupid. She is just as stubborn as you and your brother."

I opened my mouth to protest but he held up a hand, silencing me. He wasn't done talking yet. "She defiantly has the skill to be a hunter, and enough common sense to stay alive. She will be good for you boys; you two idjits need someone in your group to be reasonable."

And that was that. We all looked up to Bobby, he was our mentor and the boys adopted father. He had been around longer than us so obviously he knew a thing or two, enough to be able to make a reasonable decision. I smiled to myself, I had won. Even if Dean was pissed about it and Sam wasn't completely convinced I should be doing this, there was no going back now.

It had been an almost nightly routine by now, talking to the golden eyes archangel at night before he would snap me into a peaceful dream. He was always there; whether I had something I wanted to talk to him about or not. But even if we weren't talking about anything important, my time with him was never wasted. I liked being in Gabriel's company, truly I did. He was funny, witty, sarcastic, always knew exactly what I needed to make me feel better. Whether I was in one of my moods and desperately needed a deep chick flick heart to heart moment (Which was actually pretty rare, I was horrible at the touchy feely conversations) or just someone to complain to, he was always there. Honestly I was beginning to thing I was starting to become a little too dependent on our nightly chats. But I wouldn't give it up for the world. If there was one thing I had learned from my time as a hunter, it was to enjoy every moment you had with the ones you cared about because it could be over at any moment.

But tonight I actually had something of importance to talk to him about. I sat on the bed, legs stretched out and head leaning against the head board as I waited for the angel. I knew he would come, he always did.

I didn't have to wait long. I turned my head as I heard the soft sound of fluttering wings, seeing him lying on the bed next to me. I smiled at him, sitting up a little straighter. "Hey." I greeted him tiredly; it had been a long day. I was glad he was back of course; I wasn't sure how long it would be before Cas brought him back. "So you decided to return after all? Any specific reason or did you just get bored of sulking?"

He shrugged, popping a candy into his mouth. "Is 'crawling back to you to fall on my knees and beg for your forgiveness oh great lady of the humans' a good enough answer for you?"

I pretended to think it over. "Normally I hate suck ups, but keep up the complements and you just might become my favorite angel."

"As if I wasn't already." It was true I had to admit. Sure I had only actually met him and Castiel in person, but I did feel more of a connection with Gabriel than I did with Cas. Not that I really knew Cas, he was always too busy with Dean to pay me much attention. And of course the tiny fact that Gabriel had pulled me out of never ending pain had nothing to do with my favoritism for him.

I shrugged. "True. But what was that about earlier? All that storming out in a dramatic flourish and flapping of your wings. Did I say something wrong?"

"I'm sorry; I guess I let my emotions get the better of me. I just… It's my fault. Every time I make a scenario for you to practice you end up getting hurt, even if it is just a little. And it's my fault. If I had made it less real, made it easier so you didn't get hurt…"

I put my hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him. "Hey now, it's not your fault okay? I only have myself to blame for being so clumsy. What you are doing, it's great. The more realistic it is the more practice I get. The more chances I have of surviving in a real situation."

"I know I just…" He sighed, running a hand through his hair as he tried to calm down. "I hate the idea of you going in alone with no backup. At least if it was real someone else would be there with you. Me, Cas, Sam, Dean, one of us would be watching your back, just in case."

I nodded; he was sweet, in his own way. Protective, loyal, a truly good friend. But I could tell he didn't want to talk about this right now. That was fine, I could change the subject. I had something I wanted to ask him anyways. I glanced at him nervously, not sure how to start.

He eyed me suspiciously, knowing that I would be asking for something. "Abby….What's up?"

I sighed, turning to face him more. I never could get anything past him. Sometimes I thought he could read my mind, but even if he could I doubted he would. He respected my privacy enough not to do that. "A while ago, shortly after we met, you offered me a favor. Is it too late to take you up on that?"

He bit his lip, thinking back all those months ago. "You mean you want to go back home. Tie up all loose ends, say your goodbyes."

I nodded, looking down at my hands. I felt guilty for asking him this; he had already done far too much for me already. "If that's okay. I just think it will help me a little, say goodbye to my old life completely before I go on my first hunt. Look I know I'm asking for way too much, but please, do this for me. I'll return the favor somehow, I'll…"

"I'll do it." He cut me off, surprising me.

I blinked slowly, unbelievingly. I would have thought it would take more than that to convince him. "Really? Just like that? No catch or anything?"

He smiled slightly, shaking his head at me. "Don't make a big deal of it or anything okay? Just trying to help out a friend. Help you put the past behind you."

I smiled, relived. Gabriel really was amazing; I certainly did not deserve a friend like him. "Thank you." Before I could thing better of it I leaned over and gave him a tight hug, trying to convey with actions what I couldn't say. I was horrible with words.

I could feel him chuckling; I could feel the vibrations running through his chest. It made me smile; it always made me happy when he was happy. I pulled away after a moment, already missing the warmth of his body. "Thank you Gabriel, for everything."

"Hey stop that. You keep thanking me like that I might actually turn into something good." He joked, pushing my shoulder lightly. I smiled, leaning back against the head board and closing my eyes. "So when did you want to do this?"

I bit my lip, thinking over the time frame we had until the next hunt. "Can we go tomorrow? Our next gig is in Virginia, so we can go while Sam and Dean drive over. Once I'm finished with my goodbyes you can pop me over to them and you can go back to whatever it is you angels do."

"No way in hell." I looked at him surprised, waiting for him to explain. "This is your first real hunt; I'm going to be there. Help out where I can. Make sure all that training was actually useful."

I smiled at his thoughtfulness. "You don't have to do that."

"Yes I do." Again I waited for him to explain but this time he stayed quiet.

Neither of us talked for a while, we fell into a comfortable silence, both of us lost in our own thoughts. I rested my head on his shoulder to get more comfortable.

After a while I must have started to doze off because Gabriel was lightly shaking me awake. "Hey Abby, sorry didn't want you getting a nightmare. I'll let you sleep now, see you in the morning." I nodded tiredly, hardly processing what he was saying. He said something about sleep so I nodded, knowing what he would do. I fell asleep the second he snapped his fingers.


	5. 5 Goodbye

_**A/N: **_So here it is. Thanks to all who are reading and I hope you like this chapter. This chapter is a little longer than my previous ones so the next chapter might be a little shorter. Thanks to QueenOfTheHobbits and EmmaMarie for the chapter four reviews.

_**Disclaimer:**_ Nah, still don't own anything. Sorry folks.

I was actually going to do it. After all this time of wishing and hoping for an opportunity to see him one last time and finally gaining the courage to do so, Gabriel was actually going to take me to see Dylan. And I was freaking out. What if he didn't recognize me? What if he forgot about me? What if he didn't believe it was really me and thought I was a demon or something and tried to attack me? I sighed and sat back down on the motel bed. All this worry was not good for my stress levels.

There was a knock on the door. I smiled slightly to myself, since when did Gabriel knock? He must have known that this would be hard for me though sense he waited for me to open the door before entering. "Hey. The brothers just left. You ready?" Gabriel asked before seeing the state I was in. "What's wrong? Not having second thoughts are you?"

I sighed and sat down. "No, it's not that. I want to do this, really I do. It's just I haven't seen the guy in over three hundred years from my point of view and what if it doesn't go how I imagine it will? What do I even say to him?" I looked up at him for an answer. Gabriel always said or did the exact thing I needed to make me smile. I was counting on that now. 

Gabriel sighed, running a hand through his hair before sitting down next to me and wrapping his arm around my shoulder. "You worry too much, you know that right? Thing is Abby, no matter how many times you think it over and go through it in your head it will never be exactly how you imagine it. The most you can do is go there and hope for the best." I nodded numbly, looking down at my hands that were currently folded in my lap. "Tell you what; I can do you another favor too okay?" I looked up into his beautiful golden eyes and nodded slowly for him to continue. "I can make you unseen by him so long as you are touching me, hold my hand or something. He won't be able to see you or hear you until you are ready and let go. Take a few seconds and observe the best way to approach him before you are noticed."

I smiled gratefully at the angel. It might have been just a small act, but to me it meant so much. I smiled slightly and nodded. I checked the clock on my bed stand, 11:30. It was far past time for us to be on our way. "Thank you that could help a lot." I spoke in a soft voice.

He smiled; glad he had managed to cheer me up. He untangled his arm from around me and stood up. "Okay. Let's get this over with." He smiled reassuringly at me as he held out his hand. I took it gratefully and a second later we had left the room.

It took me a second to take in my surroundings, but when I did I instantly regretted choosing today to see him. It was the twenty third of August and we were standing in the middle of a cemetery staring at a gravestone with a few freshly placed flowers on it. How could I possibly be stupid enough to forget the date? Of course he would come by on the anniversary of my death. Oh my God, he was probably going to hate me for choosing the most painful day to return from the dead. I was about to ask Gabriel to take me back when I saw Dylan's approaching form and my breath caught in my throat.

He looked the same as last time I saw him. He had the same messy brown hair that fell slightly into his grey eyes, the same thin but fit figure. The only thing that seemed to be different about him was the circles under his eyes and the frown on his face. I hardly saw him unhappy, and I had never seen him cry. Not even at his cousin's funeral. He had stayed strong through the day, only breaking down after he had returned home. I had never seen him cry, but when he had called me that night I could tell he was from the cracking of his voice. But now, as he approached the stone with my name, the tears flowed freely and he made no attempt to hide it. My friends and family must have already come by my grave, judging by the flowers that were already littering the dirt by my headstone. They probably stopped by on their way to work or during their break or something. At least I would only have to say goodbye to one person anyways, I didn't think I would be able to handle more than Dylan at the moment. Besides, he was the only one I really felt guilty about leaving considering he never knew the truth about why I died in the first place.

I watched as he collapsed on his knees in front of my carved name, placing his flowers neatly by my headstone. I smiled slightly upon seeing them; purple orchids, at least he knew me well enough to know I hated roses. "You know I come here, all the time; your birthday, my birthday, every holiday in between. Any excuse I can find to come by really. I just… I need to talk to you. I need to feel your presence again. And I know you are gone, I know that. And I know you aren't coming back. I just hope that wherever you are, you're listening to me. You are up there, looking out for me. You were my best friend Abby; I don't know what to do without you I just..."

He paused, taking a deep breath to calm down. "Everyone keeps saying I should talk about it, they say it will help. They say I need a therapist. And maybe they are right; maybe I do need to talk. But not to them. The only person I want to talk about your death to is you. Does that make sense? I sound crazy, don't I? If you are up there and listening to me you are probably rolling your eyes at me right now." I blinked the tears away, shaking my head. I would never think he was crazy. Sure I had joked about it before but I never actually believed it.

"You know you started acting different after our little adventure in the woods. It wasn't too noticeable though, I don't even know if you realized it. You started apologizing for everything, like you were scared we would get mad at you. We never were, never could be. But you were so kind, never said anything mean. Not even in a joking way. Not that you were ever mean to us, but you were an expert with sarcasm. But that last month you were with us… I don't know. Maybe you knew something was going to happen and were trying to leave us on good terms. I don't know. I just wish… I never got to say goodbye. There were so many things left unsaid…"

He was done talking, for now at least. The only thing breaking the silence was the sound of both our crying, each of us trying to be as silent as possible. My entire body was shaking, the only thing keeping me stable was Gabriel's large warm hand wrapped around mine. I turned into his chest, seeking his comfort. Well shit, this was supposed to make me feel better; help me get on with my life. It was not supposed to turn me into a sobbing wreck. I tried to calm down as much as possible before pulling away from him slightly without breaking the contact. I bit my lip and looked up at him. "Okay, I think I'm ready."

"Hold on." He gripped my hand tighter as I tried to pull away. He wiped away my tear streaked face with his thumb and I could tell he was using some of his angel mojo to make me look a little more normal because my eyes no longer stung from tears. "There, much better." He smiled down on me comfortingly, silently giving me the support I craved and telling me I could do this.

"Thank you." I spoke softly, still trying to get my voice back to normal. I smiled slightly up at him and slowly pulled my hand away. I quietly walked over to Dylan, turning back to Gabriel before I did anything. I didn't see him though, he was right. Whatever he was doing to conceal himself from view was working. I took a deep shaky breath as an attempt to compose myself before continuing.

I crouched down to Dylan's level, he was still on his knees and unaware I was there. "Dylan?" I whispered quietly as I slowly reached out to touch his shoulder.

He jumped at my touch, standing up. At first he looked confused as he took me in before a look of recognition washed over his face and he smiled. "Abigall?"

"Hey." I whispered, relived he wasn't freaking out on me. At least no more than was expected anyways.

He took a large step towards me and enveloped me in one of his bear hugs, spinning me around. "You're here! But how…?"

I smiled as he put me down, not leaving his embrace. "An angel. I asked to come back, to say goodbye. It just… time passes differently here than it does there. Sorry I took so long." There, not a complete lie. It just wasn't the whole truth. He probably assumed I was thinking about Heaven, not Hell.

He ran a hand through his hair, still keeping one arm around me. He kept the contact, still reassuring himself that this was real, I really was here. "An angel brought you here? Good, so you made it to heaven then? I knew you would, you are better than anyone I know."

I bit my lip and looked down, not wanting to lie to him but not wanting to ruin the happy moment. "I met angels; I have been doing good things. But I missed you, and I just… I needed to see you at least one last time."

He brought me into his chest again in another bone crushing hug. "I missed you too, so much. I…" He loosened his hug a little, enough for me to breathe as he rested his chin on my head. "I loved you Abby."

Well I wasn't expecting that. I pulled away, bringing my hand up to his face and looking into his light grey eyes. I spoke slowly, choosing my next words carefully. "Dylan, I loved you too. Still do actually, but we have to move on. Both of us. You have a life here; you can't let me hold you back. And me, well I have to let go. I can't let myself be distracted by what I used to have." I looked at him sadly, knowing our thoughts were somewhere along the same line. Why did we always have to say too little, too late? Of course I could have told him before I died, but even if there was that small chance that he felt that same way it would only make it so much worse when it was my time to go.

He let out a long sigh and rested his forehead against mine. "You can't stay can you? You're not back for good." He knew the answer to that, I know he did. He just wanted to make sure that there would be no chance for us before he got his hopes up.

I looked up at him through my lashes, pleading with him to understand. "I'm only here to say goodbye. I wish I could stay, really I do. It's just… We are from different worlds now. It's not fair to either of us to pretend like we have a chance. You deserve a good life Dylan. You have good friends, you can start a family. I don't know when I can come back to you, if I ever can. But I'll always be thinking about you, you will always have a special place in my heart. You are my best friend, don't ever forget that."

"And you were, no, are mine. You have always been there for me, ever sense we were kids. Truth is I don't know how to live without you. Even after you left, you were always with me. Your voice was always there, in the back of my head. Yelling at me whenever I did something stupid." He chuckled slightly, trying to keep the fresh tears at bay and stay strong.

I smiled slightly through my tears, looking up at him through my wet lashes. I knew deep down this would be the last time I would be able to see him; it wouldn't be fair to either of us if I kept popping up whenever I missed him. Hell it probably wasn't fair to him for me to be showing up after three years of being dead, but Gabriel had made a good point. I did need to make sure he was okay so I could start focusing on my new life instead of constantly worrying about the one I left behind.

We stayed in the embrace for a while, unable to create words to express how we felt. For the moment we were both content with the fact that we were with each other again, even if just for a short while longer. I wished I could say something, wished I knew what to say. But there were no words powerful enough to explain how I felt. Dylan was my entire life before I died. We grew up together, we played together as kids. It was basically the stereotypical girl next door story for us, only I never lived long enough for us to have a happy ending.

The past months I had distracted myself with research and reading the books about the boys. I tried to find out anything and everything I could about demons and angels and everything in between. And of course there was the training. But now as I stood with my arms locked around Dylan, all my suppressed emotions and memories came back. I remembered everything about him and why I loved him. I remembered Hell and how it was worth it because it meant he was alive. After a while I lost track of who was holding who. We both were clinging to each other and had silent tears cascading down our faces.

Eventually the tears stopped and I brought the back of my hand up to my face to wipe away the tears. I saw Gabriel standing behind Dylan; he must have made himself visible to me to tell me we should get going. I took a look around; I hadn't realized how late it was. It was easily around two in the afternoon, at least that's what I guessed judging by the sun and its position in the sky. I nodded slightly at the angel and pulled away from my lifelong friend.

He looked confused for a second as he took in the surroundings, he must have been as out of it as I was. He took a deep breath to compose himself before quietly asking me the dreaded question. "It's probably about time for you to go, huh? I'm sure you have other things that you need to get done up there."

I nodded sadly, not wanting to leave. But the longer I stayed the harder it would be to say goodbye. Besides, the Winchesters were probably almost at the motel room by now. "I'm sorry, I wish I could stay, really I do. It's just..."

"I know you do. And I get it, I do. I just wish things were different. I wish you were still with us Abby; it has been so hard adjusting to life without you. Me and Laura and everyone else, we always looked up to you. You are the one that kept our small group together, you know that? Without you it's just… empty."

I brought my hand up to his face, using my thumb to wipe away the stray tear that fell. "I'm sorry. I never meant to put you through any pain, I'm sorry this is hard for you guys. It's hard for me too, believe me. But I really do have to go. I'll talk to the angel that brought me here. Even if he won't let me come again I'll ask him to stop by every once in a while, just to make sure you are okay and healthy. I won't forget about you, promise." Before I could think better of it I stood on tiptoe and placed a chaste kiss to his lips before pulling away and backing up. Gabriel who had walked over to my left held out his hand and I took it, making me disappear from Dylan's view. I saw him whisper "goodbye" into the air before I heard the soft sound of wings flapping and we were gone.

I stood shaking for a moment after we landed outside of the hotel we were supposed to be staying at. I hardly noticed when Gabriel let go of my hand and wrapped his arms around me. I clenched his shirt in my fists as he held me, not really caring if I wrinkled it. After all, he was an angel; if he wanted it fixed all he would have to do is snap his fingers to make it as good as new.

A few seconds after I calmed down I pulled away to see Gabriel looking down at me with wide worried eyes. "Hey, you okay?" He asked gently.

I took a deep breath and nodded, trying to clear my head a little. "Yeah, yeah I'm good. I just... it's over. That's it. I didn't expect..."

He sighed and placed his hands comfortingly on my shoulders. He lifted his left hand to tilt my chin up slightly, enough for me to look him in the eyes. "Hey look at me. It will be just fine, okay? You're a strong girl; you'll make it through this. Just take a second and calm down, okay? I'm here for you; you don't need to worry about anything."

I nodded, hardly paying attention to the words coming out of his mouth. The only thing that really registered was the soft gentle voice he was using. I was aware that he steered me into the building, aware he was talking to the clerk although I couldn't make out the words. I was finally coming back to myself just as he was gently pushing me into a sitting position on the bed.

"Hey, Gabriel?" He turned to face me, mouth half open. I guess he was talking and I was too zoned out to notice. I Must have interrupted him. Oops. Either way he shrugged it off and gestured for me to continue. "I know I have said it before and I know I will say it again, but I just need you to know. Thank you, for everything. I honestly don't know what I would do without you. From the moment I met you, you have been nothing but helpful and kind to me. Since before I met you actually, considering you brought me back. But thank you, I know I have been needy and selfish, but you are still always there for me. And I know I'm not the easiest person to be around, I'm bitchy and self centered and just overall horrible. So I'm sorry for everything, and thank you for everything." Okay, maybe I was rambling on a little too much but he needed to know that his effort didn't go unappreciated. 

He walked over untill he was standing in front of me before crouching down to meet my sitting height. "You are kidding right? You don't actually think that of yourself." He studied my face for a moment before shaking his head. "Oh my Father, you are actually serious right now. Well let me tell you Abigall Spiers, you are not nearly as terrible as you make yourself out to be. I can't believe you have that low of an opinion of yourself. Let me tell you that you are most defiantly one of the kindest, selfless, genuine people I know. And you are by far my favorite human. I truly believe that with all of my heart, I just wish you could see it too."

I bit my lip as I studied his face. I couldn't quite tell if he was being honest or if he was just trying to make me feel better. His voice certainly sounded like he was telling what he believed to be the truth. And those beautiful, bottomless gold eyes held nothing but honesty in them. I sighed and nodded, not wanting to seem like I was fishing for complements (which I wasn't by the way). I closed my eyes and threw my arms around the angel; I really didn't deserve a friend as amazing as him. "Thank you." I whispered so quietly that if he wasn't an angel with super hearing I doubt he would have heard.

I was quite content to stay in his arms all day; he was warm and smelled of sweets. And whether I liked to admit it or not he did make me feel safe. But I eventually had to detach myself from him when there was a knock on the door. I sighed and stood up, walking over and opening it for the boys.

Sam smirked knowingly at Gabriel, who was still crouched by the edge of the bed. "We aren't interrupting anything are we?"

"No, why would you be?" I tilted my head at the younger Winchester, confused at why he was implying what he was. Me and Gabriel? No way in hell would that ever happen. He was an archangel; I was nothing but a lowly human. I should be thankful he is even wasting my time being my friend.

Sam shared a look with Dean before rolling his eyes and smiling slightly shrugging it off for now. "Never mind, ready for your first real official hunt?" 

I bit my lip and nodded, watching as Deans face darkened. "You know I still don't like this. What if something happens? What if you get hurt?" 

I was about to speak to defend myself but Gabriel jumped to my rescue before I could open my mouth. "She won't. She won't get hurt, I won't let her. I'm joining you guys on this one, I'll protect her." His voice was low, serious. In that moment he sounded a lot more like the powerful archangel than the playful trickster.

Dean looked about as surprised as I felt. "Gabriel you don't have to do that for me. I can protect myself, for the most part at least. I don't want you getting hurt because of me."

He waved me off like it was no big deal, reverting back to his not so serious self. "Better me than you, I'll heal faster and I'm harder to kill. Besides, I still haven't figured out what makes you so special. And I can't do that if you're dead." Right, I keep forgetting he only hangs around me so he can figure out what I am. 

Dean glared at the angel, hands in fists. He walked over to Gabriel, towering over him by a few inches. He spoke quietly, threateningly. I had to strain my ears to hear. "Fine, but only because I know you care about her and don't want her getting hurt any more than I do. But believe me when I say if anything happens to her I will end you." 

Gabriel raised his eyebrows, trying to play it off as nonchalant. "Well aren't you just the perfect over protective older brother? You do realize she isn't actually related to you right?"

Dean's jaw set in the way it always did when he was determined about something. In this case it was winning this little argument with the angel. "Family doesn't end with blood."

"I thought we were supposed to be fighting a demon, not each other." Castiel, who had just appeared way to close to Dean just as usual, tried to take Deans attention off the golden eyed angel. 

After a second Dean calmed down and turned to his more favored angel. "Sorry Cas. Come on, let's go." With that he stalked out of the room and presumably out to the car.

I sighed and watched as the door slammed shut behind him. "Hey Sam?" He turned to me, gesturing for me to continue. "Can you stay up here for a few minutes with them? I wanna talk to your brother real quick."

I walked out of the room in pursuit of Dean, hardly checking to make sure Sam nodded in acceptance to my demand. I found Dean in the front seat of the impala, hands clenched so tight on her wheel they were turning white. I walked over and tapped the window to get his attention.

He sighed and his features softened slightly when he realized who I was. He pushed the button to unlock the door and I slid into the passenger seat.

We were both silent for a moment as we stared at each other, waiting for the other to start the conversation. After a second he gave in. "Okay, what's this about? Some kind of intervention and they sent you to yell at me?"

"Sort of." I admitted, shrugging. "I volunteered."

"Okay, so what? This about me not wanting you to hunt?"

I shook my head, becoming serious. "No, it's about Gabriel. Look I know you two don't get along, but over the past few months I have noticed that you have been getting better. But you still can't be in the same room for more than ten minutes without wanting to tear each other's throats out. I just don't understand why. What exactly did he do to you?" 

He scoffed and gripped the wheel harder. "You know exactly why I don't like him; you read the books, both the published and unpublished ones." That was true. The boys had gotten Chuck to email me a copy of all the unpublished books so I was up to date with their lives for the most part.

"I did." I agreed. "But I want to hear it from you. From what I have read and witnessed you don't even remember the whole Groundhog Day thing and all he was doing was trying to help. True his methods might have been a bit...unorthodox, but he really was trying to help."

Dean sighed and let go of the wheel, turning to face me. "Well what do you want me to do? He used to be a trickster for crying out loud. He killed people. As a hunter it is supposed to be our duty to kill his kind, but here we are working with him."

"As a hunter it's your job to kill anything supernatural, that's what your dad drilled into your heads. Kill first, ask questions later. It's all black and white, no shades of gray."

"You know I think I'm really starting to regret letting you read Chuck's books. You know too much."

"Oh shut up." I hated when he tried to get off topic. "Anyways Cas is an angel. That makes him supernatural. And I don't see you plunging an angel blade into his chest." 

Dean stumbled for words for a second; it was obvious that that wasn't what he had been expecting me to say. "Well that's different, I mean its Cas! He's a friend, he's... don't you dare hurt him!"

"Oh calm down Dean, I won't hurt Castiel, I know what he is to you. He is my friend too; I'm not going to kill him or hurt him in any way." Dean let out a sigh of relief. "But Gabriel is my friend. And Sam's. And he is Gabriel's brother."

"What's your point Abby?" Dean said tiredly. We had had similar conversations before and I could tell he was tired of it. It was his own fault though, if he could just pretend to tolerate Gabriel while in my presence all would be well.

"My point is he has changed. He gave up his trickster ways, he helps us save people. He has been doing pretty damn well for a while and you still refuse to trust him. He is just as good as Cas now, but Gabriel seems to be the only one you have a problem with."

"Well I've been trying to accept him, believe me I have been. I know what Gabriel is you and I have been trying to get along with him, for your benefit. But it's not that easy. He tried to kill me. Hell he did kill me, hundreds of times."

"Funny thing is, Sam remembers all of that and you only know what he told you. And yet he seems to have moved past it and you haven't." I stared at him, waiting for an explanation. 

"Like I said. With Cas it's different." He turned away from me and went back to staring out the windshield.

"Right okay. Well you might be in love with your dark haired angel but Gabriel is my friend. So please for the love of all that is holy, please stop fighting with Gabriel. Or at least restrain yourself from killing him." 

"I'll do what I can, but that's all I can promise." He stated gruffly.

I nodded, accepting this. It was the best I could get from him for the moment anyways. After a moment I figured the conversation was over so I silently prayed and told Gabriel I was done and they could come. A few seconds later there was a fluttering of wings and Sam, Castiel, and Gabriel were all seated in the back seat of the impala.

"Okayyyy... well we are losing daylight. Let's get going." Sam tried to cut the tension, and for the most part it worked. Dean started driving, Gabriel made jokes that Cas didn't understand. After a few minutes of loosening up it was a fairly pleasant car ride. It wasn't long at all before dean parked outside the five star hotel that our demon was at. According to Sam's research the demon has possessed the manager.

Sam let out a low whistle as we walked up to the expensive carved mahogany doors. "Well damn. Why didn't we just check in here?" 

Cas nodded, seeming to consider it. "It is a nice establishment, very high maintenance. But the manager probably has a few of his workers possessed by his minions so it would be unwise. One of the lower demons would have recognized us and reported it to the boss." 

Gabriel stayed with me, a few steps behind the boys. "You sure you're ready for this? You can always turn back you know. We won't think any less of you if you do."

I tried to resist rolling my eyes at him; he was just trying to protect me after all. "Yes Gabriel, I am perfectly fine now stop your worrying, we got work to do."

We had caught up to the others by now and they must have heard the last little bit because Sam and Dean smiled slightly at each other like they were sharing a private joke. I shrugged it off, I had realized long ago that the brothers communicated in their own way and had given up trying to figure out what each small side glance or knowing look they shot each other meant.

I took a deep breath and nodded at Castiel to open the door. We walked in slowly, cautiously. The brothers had their hands in their pockets, clenching their hidden weapons. I shakily grabbed my pocketed knife and tried not to hide too much behind the angels. I guess they were right, this is different from the illusions Gabriel created. At least then I knew I wouldn't get seriously injured. I tried to swallow my fear as we glanced around the deserted building. That was odd, for a place so grand you would expect it to be swarming with people. Especially when it was around the normal check in time. But the only person we saw was the desk clerk who was snoozing off behind the new computer.

Dean turned to the angels, asking them the silent question of if the guy was human or possessed, but Gabriel was no longer with us. He was standing in front of the guy, his hand pressed to his forehead. I watched silently as the demon inside was killed.

"Get ready," Gabriel spoke urgently as he re joined the group. "Demons don't need sleep, he was just acting. He probably sent a signal to his boss the second we walked through the front doors. It won't be long till the others arrive." 

We all nodded in understanding, drawing out our weapons and mentally preparing ourselves to fight. The five of us stood back to back, forming a circle so we could face all directions.

"There!'' We all whisper shouted at the same time. We looked around, they had us surrounded and we were out numbered. Three to one easy from my quick head count. We might not win this but like Dean always said, at least we'll go down swinging. I gulped and clutched the knife harder, hoping it would be enough. Sam and Dean each had guns with homemade bullets that they claimed would kill a demon. Sam still had Ruby's knife, just in case. Cas and Gabriel had their angel blades, so they were set. The only one without a demon killing weapon was me. I was stuck with a blade that had a wicked curve to it and was pure silver in one side and pure iron on the other. Bobby had put some sort of sat coating on it like what he did for his panic room. It was a pretty great knife actually, could be used for a lot of creatures. But I knew it wouldn't kill a demon. The salt would slow it down sure, but not kill.

The group of demons slowly started circling us, observing us. The demon possessing the salt and pepper haired manager seemed to be the one in charge; he kept the others from jumping us immediately with a single look. He stopped in front of me and took a step forward. His voice was terrifyingly calm. "Just hand over the girl and none if you have to die."

"Over my dead body." Gabriel growled and turned his angel blade to face the manager threateningly.

"Calm down angel or your fate that you so desire can be easily arranged." 

Sam, always the logical one, tried to talk in a more civil tone than Gabriel to avoid an unnecessary fight. "What do you want with her?" He asked through clenched teeth.

"We have plans for her. Let's just say if you continue to refuse Lucifer she is the next best thing we have to help us take over your pathetic human race."

"Well you can't have me." Somehow my voice was calm and collected. Huh. Not sure how that happened when I'm freaking out internally. "I'm on their side, not yours. I know where my loyalties lie and you can't change that."

"Then I suppose we will just have to take you against your will, won't we?" He shot a look to his minions, giving them permission to attack.

It was hard, even with the skill level of all of us combined we were outnumbered to begin with. And of course it didn't help that more and more kept flooding the lobby. It appeared that the entire hotel was possessed. The boys and angels were killing demons left and right and I was doing everything I could to hold them off. I stabbed and sliced, ducked and dodged, but it wasn't enough. There was a whole mini army of them and only five of us.

The boss guy must have thought I wouldn't be much of a threat because he was the only one cornering me while the rest of his army dealt with my friends. Thankfully I had learned something through all my training and I proved to be more difficult than he had expected. Of course it would have been a lot easier if I had had a demon killing weapon, but my blade was doing a good enough job keeping me alive for now. But still I couldn't help but think if Sam had let me take Ruby's knife that I would have finished the manager off long ago.

Guns were fired, screams were heard, bodies dropped. But it wasn't enough. We would eventually get tired and loose, there was no way we could keep this up forever. 

Somewhere in the background I heard an antagonized scream of pain that sounded all too much like Dean's. I should have kept my focus, should have been only concentrating on the demon in front of me. But I turned my head for half a second, just to make sure my friend was still alive. And just as I turned he made his move. He plunged his weapon deep into my shoulder. I felt the numbing pain, felt the blood dripping down my shirt. I could feel my head going dizzy, the blade must have somehow been poisoned or something for it to affect me like this. The room was spinning and I could feel my knees buckling underneath me. Not good, not good at all. 

I could hear the distant sound on my name being yelled by a familiar voice as I slowly sunk to the ground. I could see the demons triumphant smirk, thinking he won this time. And perhaps he did. Maybe it was the poison, maybe it was the adrenaline, or maybe it was some combination of the two, but it appeared that time had slowed down. I watched and waited for the demon to deliver the final blow, the one that would kill me. I saw his arm, weapon in hand, slowly descending and ready to penetrate my heart. If I hadn't been so affected by the poison I would have had plenty of time to move out of the way and finish him off, but I was weak. I could barely move, I felt as though I was paralyzed. 

There was a prickling, tingling sensation at the back of my mind as though someone were trying to break into it. I had a hunch telling me this is what it felt like for an angel to be sending you a telepathic message. A second later Gabriel's voice rang out, loud and clear throughout my mind. '_Cover your eyes; don't open them until it's over.'_

_Until what's over? What the Hell is going on? Why did I have to close my eyes? _Now thinking back on it I probably should have listened to him. But no, leave it to me to question everything. I should have known. I had heard the stories, heck I had even seen it with my own eyes a few times to know not to argue with an angel when they tell you to cover your eyes. See humans weren't built to be able to see an angel's true form; their eyes will literally melt out of their skull. But blame it on the poison or just me being stupid, but I wasn't thinking and left my eyes wide open.

Hardly a second later was the room filled with the most brilliant blinding white light. I only caught sight of him for a few moments, large and beautiful with six equally large and beautiful golden wings sprouting from his back. It was the true form of an archangel, strong, powerful, and absolute. And only then, looking at Gabriel how he really was, could I truly begin to appreciate and understand how they were God's most powerful weapons. 

The light faded all too soon as Gabriel returned to his vessel. It took me a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the dull chandelier lights that were scattered along the surface of the ceiling. Time seemed to have gone back to its normal pace as I glanced around the room slowly. Sam and Dean where uncovering their eyes and lifting their heads and there were no demons in sight. They must have vaporized on the spot but I was too busy looking at my angel to notice.

Castiel was looking at me curiously, like a piece of the puzzle didn't quite fit together. Just great, he had probably seen that I had had my eyes open and saw Gabriel's true form. I tried to shake my head at him to silently tell him not to bring it up, but I couldn't move. Whatever poison that was on the blade of the demon boss had left me completely paralyzed; I could barely even blink without using an enormous amount of effort and concentration. 

I broke eye contact with Cas just in time to see Gabriel walking over to me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Castiel walking over to check on the Winchester brothers.

Gabriel knelt next to me, grabbing my hand. "Abby are you okay? Can you hear me?" I could hear the slight panic in his voice as he tried to control it but I was unable to answer. He cursed in a foreign language, probably Enochian. I felt his fingers pressing against my forehead and the warmth of the healing spreading through my body.

A second later I sat up straight, breathing slightly heavier than normal. "Thank you, you didn't have to do that." 

"Yes I did." After a second he seemed to notice my confused expression because he explained, "I promised Dean I would protect you." He shrugged it off like it was no big deal, but I could see the same relief that I felt that I was alive reflected in his eyes.

I smiled slightly as he helped me up. "Come on, let's get out of here." He nodded in agreement and we walked over to the others. Cas had already healed any cuts or bruises the boys had gotten by the time we had reached them. The five of us walked silently out of the hotel together.

The ride was silent, but not the pleasant kind of silent. Too much tension hung in the air, too many unanswered questions. I bit my lip waiting for one of the boys to start the conversation but knowing they were all too stubborn to. I sighed, realizing if I wanted anyone to talk I would have to start. "So why did the demon boss guy want me?"

"If I were you I would be more curious about what makes you so special that you are able to see an archangel's true form." Castiel spoke in his usual deep emotionless tone.

Dean immediately stepped on the break; bringing the car to a sudden stop and making me lurch forward. Yeah okay, maybe I should have been wearing a seatbelt, especially with the way Dean drives. Thank God or whatever was up there that we were alone on the road because if there was a car behind us surely they would have crashed into us. Sure the angels would have been able to heal us in the blink of an eye but the beautiful car would have been ruined.

"What the hell do you mean you saw his true form? You didn't close your eyes?" He turned to Gabriel, furious. "Why didn't you tell her to close her eyes? She could be dead right now thanks to you!"

Gabriel put his hands up in surrender, just as surprised by Dean's outburst as the rest of us. "Hey, I sent her the same telepathic message I sent you and Sam. Not my fault she didn't listen and I was a little busy trying not to die and save your sorry ass to see if everyone closed their eyes." he turned to me, eyes studying me like he was making sure I really was unharmed.

I looked at the other three; they all had their eyes trained on me. "I'm sorry, I got poisoned; guess that slowed my reaction down a bit. Don't look at me like that; I don't know why I'm able to see his true form." 

Dean turned to his brother, eyes begging for answers. "Common Sam, you're the smart one. Surly you must have some sort of an idea what's going on right? What's happening here?"

Sam shrugged, shaking his head. "Look I'm sorry Dean; I don't know what going on anymore than you do." He sighed, realizing he still held our attention. "Well what about Chuck?"

Dean looked confused for a second. "What about him?"

"Well he's a prophet right? So if anyone knows anything about what's going on he might. Maybe he already wrote what's going on with Abby. I mean it's worth at least a phone call right?"

Gabriel smiled, clapping his hands. "Congratulations mutton head, looks like you figured something out. Well go on Deano, call him, and see what he has to say."

Dean glared at Gabriel for a second before getting out of the car and slamming the door. I could see him pacing angrily as he took out his phone and dialed the number. 

"Do you think it will work?" I asked nervously. "I mean do you think Chuck will have the answer?"

Sam sighed and slumped back in his seat. "Honestly? I'm not sure. But we don't have any other leads with trying to figure you out so it's the best we got for now. At the very least we can tell him to call us if anything interesting about you comes up in his writing."

Now normally I would get mad at him for objectifying me like that, but honestly I was just as curious about what made me so special as the others were.

After a few minutes Dean returned to the car, closing the door a lot gentler than when he stormed out.

"So what did he say? Does he know anything?" Sam asked hesitantly, not wanting his brother to explode again.

"Yeah, but he wouldn't tell me. He said he wanted to tell us in person, not over the phone. I told him we will get there as soon as we can."

We all nodded in agreement, it sounded like a plan. Sam and Dean had been on the road for most of the day and we had just won a mini battle against a troop of demons so we figured we were done for the day and deserved a break. Dean drove a few miles down the road before pulling over at some motel.

I was bored but hey, can you blame me? Sitting in the backseat of the Impala for hours on end and nothing to do wasn't exactly the most entertaining thing. Sam was keeping himself occupied in the passenger seat by researching on his phone and trying to find us a job when we were done with Chuck and Dean was focused on the road and humming along to the radio. Gabriel was on my right, occasionally blowing a bubble with his conjured up magical color changing gum. Cas had left us for the day, taking Dean's necklace to pursue his search for God while we drove.

We had been driving for ages and the sun had just set not too long ago but long enough for it to be dark outside. We had entered Indiana not too long ago and were about to enter a town called Muncie. Dean was driving around, looking for a place to stay for the night. I could tell he was sick of driving; normally he would have been able to keep driving a few hours after dark before pulling over. But then again it might have just been the heavy rain and the constant tapping sound it made on the roof of the car that was making him tired.

It wasn't much longer before he pulled up to a decent looking hotel in the middle of nowhere called the Elysian Fields Hotel. 

"Well at least it looks better than where we stayed last night." I muttered to myself. 

Gabriel stiffened next to me, his face becoming an emotionless mask. I gently put my hand on his arm to get his attention. "Hey, you okay? What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "Nah, I'm perfectly fine. Look Abby, when we get in there and I start acting different, don't freak out okay? Anything that happens in there, anything I say or do, don't think about it too much. I don't mean any of it. See ya in a few." Without another word and the soft sound of the flapping of his wings he was gone.

"Hey Dean, maybe we should find someplace else to stay for the night." Sam suggested, a confused look on his face as he looked at where the angel had been sitting only moments ago. "Gabriel was acting kinda weird, well weirder than normal. That can't be a good sign..."

"Common Sammy, if it was that bad he would have made us leave. Besides I'm tired of driving, let's just go in. What's the worst that can happen?"


	6. 6 Hammer of the Gods

_**A/N: **_Well here we are. I'm hoping you all recognize the title of this chapter as the title of that one episode that I wish had ended differently. Anyways, thanks to Marlowee and EmmaMari for reviewing chapter 5. Also quick note: I will **most likely** be posting a new chapter **every other Saturday** **instead of every Saturday**. Sorry folks, but I have some hard classes this semester with a lot of work. I'll have to see how it goes, hopefully I can make this work.

_**Disclaimer:**_ all credit goes to the wonderful/evil genius Eric Kripke.

We got out of the car and walked quickly through the heavy rain. In the short amount of time it took us to walk from the car to the doors we were already drenched. Sam pushed open the door and Dean and I gratefully followed him in. We took a moment to shake off the rain water before glancing around.

It was a great place to say the least. The lobby was furnished in clean white furniture and there was a bar along one wall and a large fireplace against another. Sam and Dean frowned at each other, admiring our surroundings. It was definitely better than what we were used too.

"Nice digs, for once." Dean commented.

Sam and I shrugged an agreement before we walked over to the check in desk. The young man who stood behind the desk was typing away rather quickly as we approached. I noticed he was wearing a bowtie. I like bowties. "Busy night?" Dean questioned, smiling impatiently.

"Any port in a storm, I guess." He answered and turned his attention to us. "If you could just fill this out please." He pushed a piece of paper towards us.

"Yeah." Dean grabbed a pen and started doing as he was instructed.

He watched patiently as Dean was writing. "Sir I think you got a little…" he raised his right hand and pointed to his own jaw line, showing Dean the location, "shaving nick there."

Dean glanced up and took the tissue offered by the desk clerk. He lifted it to the top left side of his neck and sure enough there was a drop of blood from where the tissue touched his skin.

"Your key." The clerk smiled and held up a key. Guess it was just one room tonight. Not that I cared about sharing a room with the boys, it was just faster to get ready in the mornings when I had my own bathroom instead of waiting for them to both finish.

"Oh, thanks." Dean grabbed the key with the hand that wasn't holding the tissue to his neck. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to have a coffee shop, would you?"

"Buffet." He corrected proudly. It was obvious this guy liked his job. He raised his hand, pointing with his whole hand to his right. "All you can eat. Best pie in the tri-state area." He raised his eyebrows slightly, trying to convince us to eat. 

Well the pie thing certainly got Dean's attention. "You don't say." He smiled showing off his teeth, a slightly dreamy expression on his face. The amount of love in his face when pie was mentioned mirrored how he sometimes looked at Cas. He walked over to the long table that was covered with pie.

I raised my eyebrows, trying to contain my laughter. I looked up at Sam; it was obvious he was thinking the same thing.

Sam chuckled and rolled his eyes. "Common, let's leave my dear older brother alone with his true love."

I nodded, following him towards the elevator. "Quiet now, we don't want Cas to be eavesdropping and getting jealous."

We stepped onto the elevator and pressed the button to our floor. The soft music started playing as it started to move. "Hey, Sam?" I waited for him to give a sound that indicated he was listening. "Do you think there is a job here? It's just this place is in the middle of nowhere and with the way Gabriel was acting before he flew off... and what he said, about what he does here not meaning anything, what do you think he meant?" 

He sighed, trying to find the best way to answer. "Honestly? I don't know. Gabriel is...interesting. He does things that make no sense to others, but usually he has good intentions. Even when he was a trickster and killing he was getting rid of the not so nice people." 

The elevator dinged and opened its doors. We walked out and continued down the hall till we reached our room. "Look Abby, I don't know what's going on here, all I'm saying is be on your guard, just in case." He put the key in and opened the door. We barely took one minute to look around the room. We dropped our bags on the bed and left to meet Dean downstairs at the buffet.

We got back down in just enough time to see Dean striking out with a pretty dark skinned lady. She had perfect hair, perfect makeup, and a perfect figure. If this was high school I would be willing to bet she would be the slutty cheerleader who was a bitch to anyone not as popular as her. I hated her instantly.

We filled out plated and joined Dean at a table. Dean and I had started eating bit Sam was on his phone again. "Sam, un-pucker man. Eat something."

"We should hit the road, Dean." I could tell Sam was just as nervous about staying here as I was, but at least I was willing to stay at least long enough to eat. I had hardly had anything at that fast food joint we had stopped by earlier and the buffet food did look rather tempting.

I could tell Dean was thinking along the same lines as me, stay for the food. "In this storm? What it's-" 

"It's biblical." Sam cut his brother off. "Exactly, it's frigging Noah's ark out there and we're eating pie." 

But Dean, always the stubborn one, had to win every argument. "How many hours of sleep did you get this week? What? Three? Four?" Sam rolled his eyes and licked his lips before turning his attention back to his brother. "Look Bobby's got his feelers out, okay? We have talked with every hoodoo man and root woman in twelve states."

"Well I'm not giving up." Sam defended himself. Just great, we were back to this argument.

A look of determination crossed Dean's face. "Nobody's giving up." He took a deep breath before continuing. "Especially me. We're gonna find a way to beat the devil, okay? And soon, I can feel it. And we will find Adam, we'll find God, but you are no good to me burnt out."

I felt like I should say something, anything. Just to let Sam know that I hadn't giving up on him either. "Sam just listen to us okay? Me, Dean, Cas, even Gabriel, we are all here for you. We all care about you and we are all fighting for you. There are five of us, two of us are angels. Together we can find a way." 

Sam, realizing we had won, at least for now, sighed and picked up his fork. "Yeah, okay." 

Dean, always trying to find the positive side of things to ease the tension, started smiling like nothing had happened. "Come on. We've actually got the night off for once. Let's try to enjoy it." 

On our way back up to our room we passed a young couple that were giggling and making out. Dean, being Dean, started laughing and Sam made some comment about how immature his brother was. Dean rolled his eyes and pushed his way into his room. He dropped his bag on a bed and let out a low whistle of appreciation. "Look at this. We're like the Rockefellers."

I had to admit, the room was pretty sweet. There was lots of space, great furniture, and even a chocolate on each pillow. I was suddenly grateful that we used fake credit cards and the money wasn't actually coming out of our pockets. A room like this would surly cost a fortune. Sam and I hardly noticed nor cared that Dean took not only the chocolate on his bed but from the other bed as well.

"Whoa, Casa Erotica thirteen on demand." Dean said, picking the add up from the bedside table and showing me and Sam. Okay, maybe Dean was having a little too much fun here. "What?" he asked innocently, noticing Sam and I shaking out heads at him.

"Doesn't this place seem kind of…?" I trialed off, not sure how exactly to phrase it. Luckily Sam came to my rescue.

"In the middle of nowhere? Not to mention Gabriel flying off as soon as we pulled up."

Dean shrugged, apparently seeing nothing wrong with this. "So?"

"So what's a four star hotel doing on a no-star highway?" Sam made a valid point. I'll be honest; I was too worried about Gabriel to notice the location too much.

Before Dean could answer there was a thud against the wall a little too forceful and loud to just be the couple we saw in the hall. It shook the wall and made the table against it topple over.

"What the hell?" I wandered out loud as I followed the brothers out of our room and into the one next to us.

The room was dark, it looked empty, deserted. Dean took a few slow steps into the room, eyeing his surroundings cautiously. We walked around the room, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Sam was brave enough to call out a "Hello?" as he searched. I found nothing so made my way back to Dean, who was holding up a diamond ring. Well that sure was unusual. Considering how they were acting a few minutes earlier they certainly didn't seem like they would get into a fight and call off an engagement.

We wandered down to the lobby and found the man who had checked us in. "The, uh, the room next to ours, the couple that are, uh, joined at the lips, have you seen them?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Logan, the honeymooners?" He asked, hardly pausing to think. For a hotel this grand it surprised me that he took the time to learn each customer's names. He typed quickly into his computer before returning his attention back to us. "They checked out. Is something the matter?"

"They checked out?" I asked, disbelievingly. With the sounds we had heard coming from their room it certainly didn't seem like they would be leaving anytime soon.

"Mm-hmm. Just now." The desk boy confirmed, smiling at us. 

"Really?" Dean questioned.

"It sort of seemed like they were um... In the middle of something." Sam finished Dean's train of thought.

"Yeah that's kinda weird for honeymooners to check out without this." Dean held up the diamond ring to show to the desk boy.

"Oh dear." He replied, not sounding concerned at all. "I'll just put that right in the lost and found. Don't you worry." He took the ring, smiling pleasantly at us. It seemed fake and to be honest a little creepy. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"No, no we're good thanks." I replied, trying to smile despite my feeling of discomfort about this place.

"Super-fantastic." He gave us another smile, this one seeming slightly more natural. Probably because he was done speaking to us. Dean gave him an awkward smile before we turned and walked away.

"Creepy." Sam said as he cleared his throat slightly.

I had to say I agreed with Sam. "Glad I'm not the only one who thinks so." 

"Broke the needle." Dean turned his head to face us as we walked. "All right. Well I'll scoop out the joint and you two keep an eye on Norman Bates over here. I mean, one night off. Is that too much to ask?" Dean complained as he walked away.

I turned to Sam. "Well you have been a hunter longer than me. Got any ideas about what's going on here?"

He shook his head. "Not yet, but something definitely isn't right." Sam turned and saw the desk boy walking away from his computer as another worker took his place. "Common. Try to stay quiet."

I nodded and together we silently followed him down a hall. We could see a glowing light from around the corner. We waited a second after he turned before following. The light revealed itself to be a vending machine. We glanced around. No sign of the worker.

"Where did he go?" I mouthed silently to Sam who in response frowned and shrugged.

He raised his fingers up to his neck, pulling them away to reveal a drop of blood. My eyes widened. It was just like what happened to Dean when we first walked in here.

"What the hell?" he whispered and looked up at me, his eyebrows raised and drawn together like they did when he was confused.

"Come on, let's go." I whispered, pulling on Sam's arm.

We met Dean on our way back to the lobby. "An Elephant?" I questioned, disbelievingly.

He nodded. "Yeah."

"Like an _Elephant?_" You could practically see the gears turning in Sam's head. 

"That's what I said Sammy. Like full on Babar."

"So what the Hell is..." Sam's sentence was cut off as we reached the lobby. Everything looked to be in order. All the furniture was in the correct place and perfectly clean. The only thing that seemed to be different was that there wasn't a person in sight. 

"Where is everybody?" I asked confused. "I somebody took them then why leave us?"

Neither of the brothers seemed to have an answer as they walked around the empty lobby. Sam went over to the doors and shook them.

"Let me guess." Dean started. "It's locked." Sam nodded, confirming Dean's words. "So, what? The roaches check in, they don't check out?"

"Think about how we got here." Sam said quietly. I was confused at first, what did that have to do with anything? "That detour on I-90? The friggin Hurricane?" 

"Are you saying we were led here?" I questioned him. 

Sam nodded. "Like rats in a maze."

"But that doesn't make sense." I shook my head, refusing to believe it. "Gabriel would have said something, warned us somehow. He wouldn't knowingly let us b e led into a trap."

Sam put his hand comfortingly on my shoulder as I bit my lip, trying not to cry. He wouldn't do this to me. To any of us. Not after everything we have all been through the past five months.

"When he shows his face to us again I swear I will kill him myself." Dean promised, his eyes showing how serious he was.

"No Dean." I shook my head. He turned to me, waiting for me to elaborate. "He deserves to at least be heard out. Promise me you will at least let him explain before you hurt him."

Dean, of course, tried to protest. "But he is hurting you now! He doesn't deserve-"

"Promise!" I cut him off, my voice strong, not leaving any room for arguments.

He nodded, probably just for my sake. "Okay." His voice was way gentler now, probably sensing how close to my breaking point I was. "Okay I promise."

I nodded, accepting this. I didn't want to fight with him. I could feel Sam pulling me into a comforting hug. I accepted, grateful for the contact. "Thank you," I whispered into his chest as his arms wrapped securely around me. I took a shaky breath to compose myself before pulling away, giving a small smile to each of the boys. I was grateful they were here with me; they were each one of the few people who could make me feel safe. There were two others, one was trying to find his long lost father and the other, well I didn't want to think about him right now.

Dean shifted uncomfortably. That's right; he never was one for chick flick-y moments. He glanced around, eyes narrowing as he saw something. He lifted a hand and pointed at the doors to the kitchens which were slightly ajar. "Think that means anything?"

"Let's find out." I said, following the boys into the kitchen. I felt a lot better than I did a few moments earlier. Good thing too, I can't have my pathetic emotions getting in the way of a case.

We slowly walked around the kitchen, looking for any clues. As far as I could tell so far there was just the normal stuff; Ovens, stoves, pots and pans in their rightful place, nothing seemed to be ordinary. We walked down one aisle of stoves, hearing the liquid in a pot boiling. It was dark red and gave off a not so pleasing odor.

Dean walked over to it, muttering, "Please be tomato soup." He grabbed the ladle and lifted it, dropping it almost immediately. There were two eyeballs in the 'tomato soup'. Dean put his hand up and turned away, obviously not interested in that particular pot any more.

"Welcome to Motel Hell." I stated sarcastically, a grimace on my face. 

Sam turned and walked to one of the pantries in the kitchen with a window to show what was inside. When he was close enough someone, probably one of the guests, threw themselves against the window, yelling, "Help us! Get us out!"

I ran over to Sam who was jiggling the handle and trying to open it. It was locked.

"Hurry up!" Dean urged us on. 

"We are trying; we are doing this as fast as we can!" I called over to Dean while Sam continued to attempt to pick the lock.

I nudged Sam in the ribs to get his attention, using my eyes to point at the three who had suddenly appeared behind the oldest hunter.

"There's somebody behind me, isn't there?" Dean asked. I barely had time to nod to confirm he was right before each of them grabbed one of us.

They obviously were not human because even with the strength Sam and Dean had they couldn't shake off the attackers. Noticing their struggles I decided my attacker would be a lot gentler with me if I went along quietly. Not like I had enough strength to throw him off anyways. They took us up to the Grand Ballroom, Sam and Dean still trying to squirm their way out of the attackers grasps.

They let go of us after we entered the room, throwing us roughly in front of them, causing us to stumble slightly. It didn't take long for us to notice the room was not empty. Several people stood around with those 'Hello, my name is _' stickers plastered on their shirts.

I could tell immediately that these were not normal people. A black man named Ganesh stuck out in my mind. When Bobby was teaching me through all his old books wasn't there an Elephant God or something by the name Ganesh? And a tall man with white hair and beard was named Odin. As in Odin, king of Asgard? And the pretty dark skinned lady Dean struck out with earlier, Kali, wasn't she one of the fiercest forms of the Shakti known as The Destroyer? Baron Samedi, didn't he have something to do with death? A quick glance at the boy's faces told me they were thinking the same thing.

"Something tells me this isn't a Shriner Convention." Dean joked, probably more for the benefit of me and Sam than himself. I smiled slightly at him, silently thanking him for attempting to calm our nerves.

The desk clerk who had checked us in came in with a silver platter on a movable tray with wheels. "Dinner is served." He said pleasantly, taking off the silver platter cover to reveal a human head on top of what looked like salad made from human flesh. I had to keep myself from gagging at the sight and smell. Of course it didn't seem to bother the Gods and Goddesses around us, the applauded at the sight of the feast.

The God named Baldur smiled evilly. "Ladies and gentlemen, our guests of honor have arrived." well he certainly said that more dramatically than was necessary, but each to their own I suppose.

Shit. Guest of honor? I realized they were all looking at the three of us. What exactly did that entail? Were they going to make us into dessert with everyone watching? I didn't have to look up at Sam or Dean to know they had the same look of fear on their face that I probably had on mine.

The visitors all took their seat as Baldur, dramatic as ever, clinked his spoon against his champagne glass to get everyone's attention. This of course was unnecessary, seeing as we were all already watching him anyways. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming. Well in all my centuries, I never thought I'd see this, this many gods under one roof."

"Gods?" Sam asked, looking to Dean.

_'Gabriel please,'_ I prayed silently, _'if we were ever friends or if you ever cared about any of us, please help us.'_ I knew it was probably a wasted effort, but I was desperate and out of ideas. I didn't particularly care of I died, seeing as I was technically supposed to be dead right now, but Sam and Dean deserved better than this. If I wasn't going to survive this then I prayed that they would.

"Now before we get down to brass tacks," Baldur continued, "some ground rules. No slaughtering each other. Curb your wrath. Oh, and uh, keep your hands off the local virgins. We're trying to keep a low profile here." Some of the gods cracked a smile while others sighed in disappointment.

"Oh, we are so, so screwed." Sam whispered.

"Yes, thank you for stating the obvious. Now any ideas how we get out of here alive?" Okay, maybe that was a little harsh of me to say. But I didn't need him reminding me that we were dead meat.

Baldur could probably hear us, being a god and all, but he continued as though we were invisible. "Now we all know why we're here. The Judeo-Christian apocalypse looms over us. I know we've all had our little disagreements in the past, but the time has come to put those aside and look toward the future. 'Cause if we don't, we won't have one. Now we do have three very valuable bargaining chips, Michael and Lucifer's vessels and of course you all know about the blessed girl." 

He pointed to each of us in turn. What the hell did he mean 'the blessed girl?' Sam and Dean looked about as lost as I was.

"The question is what do we do now? Anybody have any bright ideas, speak up. This is a safe room." His voice took on a commanding tone as he glanced at each god or goddess in turn. 

Someone stood up and started speaking mandarin.

"Oh, I don't like his tone." Dean commented. He was right, the god did sound angry. 

"Kill them?" Ganesh, the elephant god questioned. "Why? So the angels here can bring them back again?" 

Shit. They wanted us dead. Of course they did. '_Gabriel, please. Help us!'_

Odin spoke up, much calmer than the mandarin guy had been. "I don't know what everybody's getting so worked up about. This is just a couple of angels having a slap fight. It's no Armageddon. Everybody knows when the world comes to an end, the great serpent Jormungandr rises up, and I myself, will be eaten by a big wolf." He laughed slightly, glancing at the mandarin guy.

Mandarin god spoke something in mandarin. Everyone else in the room seemed to understand him but the three of us were clueless.

"Oh yeah?" Odin questioned with a slightly challenging tone. "And why is that? Because your beliefs are much more realistic? The whole worlds getting carried around on the back of a giant turtle. Give me a break." Mandarin guy spoke defensively, causing Odin to get angry. "What are you gonna do about it?" He stood up, hands on the table and leaning towards mandarin god guy.

"You watch your mouth when you talk to me, boy!" Whatever he had said did not go over well with Odin. More mandarin speaking. "No one's ever proved that."

While they were arguing and distracted we decided silently that now would be a good time to go. We stood up, seeing as they didn't bother to tie us down. The chandelier above the exit crashed down in front of us, causing me to take a few steps back.

Kali stood up and spoke in a demanding and slightly threatening tone. "Stay." We turned around, seeing all the gods focused on us and her. "We have to fight. The archangels, the only thing they understand is violence. This ends in blood, there is no other way. It's them, or us."

The desk boy raised his hand slightly to get her attention. "With all due respect...ma'am, we haven't even tried talking to them." He spoke quietly, nervously. Kali glared at him and he started choking, pulling on his tie in an attempt to loosen it.

After a few moment of him choking, Baldur spoke somewhat impatiently. "Kali."

She stopped whatever she was doing to make him choke, but she was still glaring at him. "Who asked you?" She stated simply.

The doors to the Grand Ballroom opened, revealing a certain gold eyed archangel. "Can't we all just get along?" He walked in, arms spread out to emphasize his point.

Normally I'd be thrilled to see my favorite angel, but now I was pissed. He led us here, knowing who was inside. 

Sam looked at the angel, surprised. "Gab-" he couldn't finish his sentence as it appeared Gabriel had taken his voice away. After trying out my voice I realized he must have done the same to Dean and me. 

"Sam. Dean. Abby. It's always wrong place, worst time with you muttonheads, isn't it?" What the Hell? What kind of game was he playing here? He sent us a look, silently begging us to play along. _'Fine. But you better explain everything later.'_ That is, if we survived that long.

"Loki." Baldur stated simply, greeting the trickster. Ah, so his fellow god friends didn't know who he truly was.

"Baldur." Gabriel turned his attention away from us and turned to the god. "Good seeing you too. I guess my invitation got lost in the mail." He said sarcastically, raiding his eyebrows in question.

"Why are you here?" Baldur asked calmly, though it was fairly obvious he wasn't particularly fond of Gabriel. 

"To talk about the elephant in the room." He raised his finger at Ganesh without even looking at him. "Not you. The apocalypse. We can't stop it, gang." Everyone around the room shared the same uncomfortable silence. "But, first things first." He continued, far more cheerfully. "The adults need to have a little conversation. Check you later." He snapped his fingers, making us disappear.

When I opened my eyes again we were back inside our room.

"Okay." Dean started after realizing what happened. "Did that...? Holy crap."

"Yeah. Tell me about it." Sam agreed. "By the way, next time I say let's keep driving, uh, let's keep driving."

"Okay yeah, next time." Dean seemed just as mad about the whole situation as Sam.

"All right, so, what's our next move?" Sam asked.

"I, uh, I don't know." Dean was thinking fast, trying to pick the most logical solution. "We grab the poor saps out of the freezer, I guess, bust them out. Gank a few freaks along the way if we're lucky."

I bit my lip. Part of me wanted to follow Dean's plan, but the other half of me wanted to stay. "But Gabriel is still here. Shouldn't we wait till he comes back before we try to escape?"

"See? This is why I like her." All three of us whipped our heads around to see Gabriel sitting in one of the various chairs around the room, smiling apologetically at us. "She is willing to wait for me like a loyal friend, not just ditch me the second she had the opportunity to do so." 

"Oh you know what? Bite me Gabriel." Dean said, glaring at the angel.

Gabriel waved off his comment. "Maybe later, big boy."

"We should have known. You are a trickster after all; it was only a matter of time before you betrayed us." Dean said accusingly.

"Dean," I warned, holding him back. "You promised." 

"You honestly think I would do that you boys? You think I would do that to Abigall?" He asked disbelievingly. 

"Well that's sure what it looks like." Sam glared down at Gabriel.

Gabriel shook his head. "Well I didn't. And I wouldn't. Believe it or not but there, just a few seconds ago, that was me _saving_ your ass."

"So, what? You wanna pull us out of the fire?" Dean said, raising an eyebrow. It was obvious he didn't believe him. "If that's true then why didn't you stop us from staying here in the first place?"

"Look, Dean-o, I don't expect you to understand or accept my reasoning. I did it for Abby. When we pulled up in the parking lot I could sense there was something here. A lot of power. Of course I didn't know exactly _who_ was here, but I knew there was something going on. I had hoped I could get some information." He looked straight into my eyes, looking at me with sorrow deep within his honey eyes. "Trust me Abby; I never thought you guys would get captured. I'm sorry, I was wrong."

I wanted to believe him. I wanted to run up to him, throw my arms around him and tell him it was all fine, that he was forgiven. Even though I knew he would never purposefully put us in danger, I controlled myself enough to stay where I was. "What kind of information?" I asked making sure my voice stayed emotionless. He didn't need to know how much he affected me.

"Information about you."

At first I was confused, not sure what he meant. Then realization dawned on me. "Blessed. They called me 'the blessed girl.' What does that mean?"

Gabriel took in my answer, pondering what to say. "I'm not exactly sure, although I do have a fairly good idea. I'll talk it over with Chuck when we get there, confirm my thoughts."

"You don't still think you're traveling with us, do you?" Sam laughed humorlessly. "After what you put her through, you honestly expect us to let you stay around her?" 

"Sam," I turned to him, silently telling him to shut up. I turned back to Gabriel, "I have a say in this right?" Out of the corner of my eye I could see Sam and Dean nodding slowly. "Good. Then I say he can stay with us. He made a mistake, so what? Like you two have never messed up? Gabriel, you know those guys. What do we do?"

He sighed, shaking his head. "Well it's not like I can just snap my fingers and zap us out of here. Kali has a blood spell on you boys, you're on a leash."

Dean, although still pissed, was at least willing to listen, even if it was just for my sake. "What does that, mean?" 

Gabriel smiled slightly, his eyes twinkling with mischief. "Means it's time for a little of the old black magic."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Whatever. We're gonna take the Hors D'oeuvres in the freezer with us."

"Forget it. It's going to be hard enough sneaking you mooks out of here."

"They called you 'Loki' right?" Dean questioned. Gabriel nodded. "Which means they don't really know who you are."

"Told you." Gabriel said, cocky grin on his face. "I'm in witness protection."

"Okay, well, then how about you do what we say, or we tell the legion of doom about your secret identity?"

"Dean, no." I said, getting an idea. "Gabriel is on our side. They don't know he is an archangel, this can work to our advantage."

"She is right Dean. We might survive after all. Besides, we don't have enough friends to be sending them off to their death."

I smiled proudly; things were finally looking up for us. "So, Gabriel, what's the plan?"

"Just follow my lead. And like I said in the car, anything I say to you in front of them, don't take it to heart. I'm just trying to get you out alive."

Sam, Dean, and I were walking through the lobby, trying to get to the other guests before it was too late. It wasn't long before we heard a man yelling, "No, no!" 

We peaked into the doors to the kitchens which here slightly ajar. Dean moved forward as though to help the screaming man, but Sam held him back. "It's too late." He whispered regretfully. And he was right. Not two seconds later one of the chefs brought down his large knife and ended the poor man's life. I closed my eyes and turned away at the sound of his dying scream.

We eventually snuck into the kitchen, back to where we started with Sam trying to pick the lock. Dean was searching for the blood. And of course, just like last time, we were ambushed. One of them had Sam against the wall hand on his throat. I was thrown into a wall, causing several pots and pans to topple over on me from the nearby counter. Luckily none of them hit my head. Ow, that was going to hurt tomorrow. I just hoped whatever Gabriel was doing he was having more luck than us. I tried to stand up, to help on some way, bit I got dizzy when I tried to move. I was aware of Dean plunging a stake into the god attacking Sam, saw him slide to the ground, gasping for breath. I saw them running over to me. 

"Abby, you okay?" Sam held out his hand, offering to help me up. "Common, stand up. I got ya."

I stood up slowly with his help, taking a moment to shake away the dizziness. "Thanks Sammy. You got the blood Dean?" He held it up for me to see in response. I nodded. "Good. Now let's get Gabriel and get the hell out of here." 

It was a good plan. Until we walked out of the kitchen and where, once again, captured. '_Well this whole déjà vu thing is getting old.'_ I thought to myself as we were taken back up to the Grand Ballroom. I took a quick glance around. Gabriel was there too. Well shit, there goes our genius escape plan.

"How long have you known?" Gabriel asked an air of defeat about him.

"Long enough." Kali replied coldly. 

We were pushed roughly into seats near the archangel. "How's the rescue going?" Dean asked, trying to break the tension. Gabriel gave us one of his more sarcastic smiles in response. 

"Well, surprise, surprise. The trickster has tricked us." Kali said tauntingly. Bitch. 

"Kali." Gabriel begged. "Don't." 

She turned on him, leaning in close and whispering. "You're mine now." She moved closer, sitting on his lap. If I hated her at first glance I absolutely despised her now. Who did she think she was, treating him like this? Of course my hate had nothing to do with the way she had seated herself on top of him. Nope, I'm not jealous. At least that's what I told myself. I had no reason to be, not like I stood a chance anyways. "And you have something I want." She trailed her hand down his chest and he did nothing to stop her. The longer she touched him the more my hatred for the goddess grew. Baldur obviously wasn't too pleased with his girlfriend at the moment either judging by the way he was avoiding looking anywhere near her.

I felt my heart skip a beat in fear as she pulled out his angel sword. She wouldn't dare. My hands clenched in fists as I silently yelled at Gabriel to flap his wings and get himself the hell away from her before she could hurt him. He didn't listen, instead keeping his gaze fixed strictly on the goddess on top of him.

Kali leaned even closer and spoke even quieter. "An archangel's blade. From the archangel..." she paused for dramatic effect before raising her voice to address the whole room, "Gabriel." Saying his name had the impact she had been wanting, the other gods' heads snapped up and glared at Gabriel. She got off of him, finally, and walked a few steps away. 

"Okay!" He said cheerfully, smiling at kali. He was terrified; he was just hiding it by waving it off like it was nothing. "So I got wings. Like kotex. But that doesn't make me any less right about Lucifer."

"He's lying." Kali accused, glaring down at him. "He's a spy."

"I'm not a spy. I'm a runaway." He corrected. "I'm trying to save you. I know my brother, Kali. He should scare the living crap out of you. You _can't_ beat him. I've skipped ahead, seen how this story ends."

"Your story." Kali cut him off. "Not ours. Westerners, I swear, the sheer arrogance. You think you're the only ones on earth? You pillage and you butcher in your God's name. But you're not the only religion. And he's not the only God. And now you think you can just rip the planet apart? You're wrong." Her voice broke. Didn't matter, I still had no sympathy for her. "There are billions of us. And we were here first. Of anyone gets to end this world...it's me." Her voice had dropped again as she got closer and closer to my Gabriel, stroking his face gently. "I'm sorry." She slowly raised the angel blade. I realized what she was doing just a split second before it happened. She plunged the blade into his body, watching as the white light traveled through his flesh before going out, his Grace was dying, and so was he. A second later the brilliant white light flooded out of his eyes and mouth, and then it was over. His body slumped in the chair, he was gone.

I couldn't move, couldn't scream. My world was slowly crashing down around me. What was only seconds seemed to last forever. I could feel my eyes watering, but I did nothing to push the tears away. After everything we have been through, all the memories we shared, he couldn't just be _gone._ My lower lip trembled and I bit it to hold in my sob. Gabriel, _my_ Gabriel, couldn't just be dead. All those times he healed me and saved me, protected me and cared for me, took away my nightmares or made me my favorite dessert, and now I was powerless to save him just once. It wasn't fair. Sam and Dean must have been just as shocked as I was, judging by their reactions. Probably sensing I needed comforting, again, Sam wrapped his right arm around me and held me as close as he could seeing as we were each in different chairs. Dean grabbed my hand closest to him and started rubbing small comforting circles on the back of my hand. At least I could still count on them to try to make me feel better. Sam and Dean, my adopted brothers. 

Stunned silence rang through the ballroom. Apparently no one had expected the bitch to do that to my angel. One of them even dared to whisper, "this is crazy." 

"They can die." Kali announced the group. "We can kill Lucifer."

Dean sighed, gently letting go of my hand and stood up. "All right, you primitive screwheads, listen up."

"Are you out of your mind?" Sam practically hissed at his brother.

"I'm out of options." Dean defended himself before turning back to the audience in the room. "Now on any other given day, I'd be doing my damnedest to, uh, kill you. You filthy murdering chimps." I couldn't help but crack a small smile at that. "But hey, desperate times." He began circling the room. "So even though I'd love nothing better than to slit your throats, you dicks, I'm gonna help you."

"Wait, what?" I protested. "Dean, you saw what she just did. She just killed..." my voice cracked and I took a moment to compose myself. "Anyways, you can't be serious!" 

He shot me a look, silently telling me he knew what he was doing and he had this under control. "I'm gonna help you ice the devil." He poured himself a drink. "And then we can all get back to ganking each other, like normal. You want Lucifer? Well, dude's not in the yellow pages. But me, Sam, and Abby, we can get him here."

"How?" Kali asked, disbelievingly. Ungrateful bitch.

"First you let those main courses go. Then we talk." Dean raised an eyebrow, daring her to disagree. "We can either take on the devil together, or you lame-ass bitches can eat me. Literally." Dean smiled smugly at the gods.

Sam and I shared a look, both of us thinking something along the lines of _'what the heck does Dean think he is going? He's going to get us both killed.'_

_"_Come on everybody, let's go, let's go." Dean called out to the hotels residents as they ran out of the building. "All right, all right. Go! Go! Go! Get out of here!" I helped usher the people out and to their cars. None of them needed any further persuading, as soon as they reached their vehicles they drove off quickly, not bothering to look back. 

"Psst! Dean! Abigall!" The voice sounded familiar... painfully familiar. It was coming from the back of the Impala. "Don't look at me! Act natural.

"No way." I said hopefully. "Gabriel?" 

"Get in." Was the short reply we got. 

Dean and I walked to the other side of the car and slid into the back seat, me in the middle and Dean by the window. 

I looked him over, still trying to convince myself he really was here, safe and alive. I was hardly aware of the tears welling up in my eyes as I threw my arms around him. "Gabriel, oh my god. Your alive, your okay." 

He chuckled slightly as he wrapped his arms around me, holding me close to his chest. "Well 'course I am Abby, you didn't seriously think I would leave you alone with these muttonheads, did you?" 

"Man, there is nothing natural about this at all." Dean stated, trying to pull some attention to him so he would feel less like a third wheel. I blushed at my foolish behavior and slowly detached myself from Gabriel. "I thought you were dead." 

Gabriel rolled his eyes at the hunter. "You think I'd give Kali my real sword? That think can kill me." 

"Then what do they have in there?" I asked confused. 

"A fake." Gabriel stated proudly. "Made it myself out of a can of diet orange slice. So uh... go snag our blood, would ya?"

Dean turned to the angel. "What?"

"I heard you in there. Kali likes you. You can get close. Lift the plasma, then we vamoose."

Dean barely paused to think it over. "No. Hand over the real blade. Better yet why don't you sack up and help us take down Lucifer?" 

"I can't kill my brother." He whispered, voice cracking slightly.

"Can't or won't?"

"Oh give him a break Dean." I complained. "That's his brother. Making him kill Lucifer is like making you kill Sam. Gabriel doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want to." Gabriel smiled down at me, silently thanking me. 

Well that shut him up. Dean glared at me, but realized I was right. "Common Abby, we have a job to do." He got out of the car, waiting for me by the entrance to the hotel.

I glanced up at Gabriel, "sorry about him, it's just..."

"I get it." He said gently. "Go on, you know Dean isn't the patient type."

I nodded, knowing that Gabriel was right, I should get going. "Okay. Just stay here, okay? I can't lose you for real." I gave him another quick hug and left the car, following Dean inside. 

"Shows over." Dean announced as we re-entered the ballroom. "Swords a fake. And Gabriel, he's still kicking. I hate to break it to you sister, but you've been tricked." 

I could tell dean liked the look on Kali's face as much as I did. It was one of pure disbelievment and humiliation. Too bad the rest of the gods had cleared out and couldn't see the look as well. 

The lights started flickering. Lucifer must be close. "What's happening?" Baldur demanded. There was a pained screaming from the hallway.

"It's him." Sam said. 

"How?" Kali questioned.

"Doesn't matter." Was that fear in Dean's voice? "Shazam us out of here, would you?"

"We can't." Baldur responded dramatically as he walked towards the entrance to the Grand Ballroom.

"Of course you can't." And there he was, Lucifer, king of Hell. Skin peeling as his vessel struggled to contain his true form. "You didn't say 'Mother, May I?'" He smirked to himself at his joke. "Sam, Dean, good to see you again."

"Baldur, don't." Kali warned as her boyfriend took a step towards the devil.

Of course he didn't listen. "You think you own the planet? What gives you the right?!" He quickly approached Lucifer who plunged his hand into the pagan.

"No one gives us the right," Lucifer stated calmly. "We take it." He took his hand out of Baldur's body, making him crumble to the ground. 

Kali, filled with rage at her lover's death, faced the devil. Her arms caught fire and she shot a stream of it directly at Lucifer's face. As the room filled with fire Sam and Dean pulled me behind a table just before we were burned to death. 

Of course the fire didn't affect Lucifer at all. He was the king of Hell after all. As the flames died down he still stood, smiling wickedly at the goddess." Nice try sweetheart." He mocked before tilting his head, causing her neck to break. She fell down in a heap just as lifeless as Baldur was.

"You okay?" Sam asked, turning to me and Dean.

"Not really." Sam whipped his head to the other side, staring straight at Gabriel. "Better late than never, huh?" He thrusted a movie into Dean's hands. "Guard this with your life." Before we could protest he ran around the table and faced his brother. 

Sam, Dean, and I stood up just in time to see Lucifer flying into a wall. Gabriel stood facing his brother, sword in one hand and determined look plastered on his face. "Lucy, I'm home." 

Lucifer rolled his eyes at his brother, approaching him as if to kill him. Gabriel held up his blade, silently warning his brother not to take another step. "Not this time. He backed up, grabbing my arm and pulling me close to him. "Guys! Get her out of here." 

He handed me off to Sam and Dean without once breaking eye contact with the devil. I didn't want to leave him alone to face Satan, but what choice did I have? The brothers were way too strong for me to fight my way out of their grip. I reluctantly allowed myself to be dragged out of the room. 

Lucifer's face was one of pure confusion. "Over a girl. And a mortal one at that. Gabriel, really?" That was the last thing I heard before e got out of earshot.

Gabriel was my friend; he was all of our friends. He had helped us and saved us more times than we could count. Hell, that's what he was doing right now, distracting his brother so we could get out alive. Of course, me being as pathetically stupid as I was, didn't come to my senses until we were practically outside of the lobby.

"Stop." I said weakly. Apparently they didn't hear because the boys kept dragging me. "Stop." I put more strength in my voice this time, demanding to be heard. 

"What is it Abby?" Dean sighed impatiently. 

"We can't just leave him here. Lucifer is strong, what if something bad happens?" 

"Look, Abigall, he is giving us a chance to live here. We have to get out while we can." Sam attempted to persuade me. "I know what he is to you, how strongly you feel for him. But he chose to stay and fight. If we get killed too then it isn't helping anything."

"Sam, please." I begged, giving him my best puppy dog eyes. "We have to at least try to help him. I already had to watch him die once; I'm not going to let it happen again. If you could have stopped Jessica's death, wouldn't you have done anything in your power to do so?"

Sam stumbled over his words. Okay I admit, that was pretty low of me to bring up Jess. But I was desperate, I had to say anything I could to convince them to let me go. 

Sam and Dean shared one of their telepathic brotherly conversations. Eventually Dean sighed and nodded. They both let go of me at the same time. "Be careful, okay Abby? Sam and me, we depend on ya too much to lose you." Dean pulled me into a quick hug before giving Sam his turn.

"I hope you know what you're doing. Go save your angel and come back to is in one piece." He hugged me gently, placing a brotherly kiss to my forehead for luck.

"Thank you." I whispered to both of them before turning on my heel and sprinting back up to the ballroom.

I got there in record time. I turned into the room in just enough time to see two Gabriel's, one on each side of Lucifer. The devil had just turned from one of them and grabbed the angel blade from the other; about to plunge it into what I suspected was the real Gabriel's heart.

"Stop!" I yelled with as much force as I could muster. Fortunately, it distracted Lucifer enough to not kill his brother on the spot. Unfortunately it gabbed Gabriel's attention too, so he didn't kill his brother. 

Lucifer raised an eyebrow amusedly as he eyed me. "Ah yes, little Abigall Spiers, the object of my brothers affections. Come to rescue your knight in shining armor?"

"Hey!" One of the Gabriel's protested. "I'm not a damsel in distress!" He turned to me, eyes silently begging me to leave now. "Abby, I thought I told you to leave. Why are you still here?" 

"I wasn't going to just sit in the car while you could be dying." I turned to Lucifer, my voice more confident than I felt. "Stop this now. I know you don't want to kill your baby brother, your emotions give you away." I pointed to his face and sure enough there were a few traitorous tears leaking out of his eyes. 

I was hardly aware of what I did next. It was almost as though I wasn't in control of my own actions. A strange heat was flowing through my blood, making me feel powerful. My mouth opened but I had no say as to what was coming out. "You know what I am, don't you? I can see the fear in your eyes. You know as well as I do that only I can put an end to your miserable life, and it would be so easy to do so. So I suggest you step away from Gabriel right now unless you want to face my wrath." I raised my eyebrow, daring him to fight me. 

"This is not over. You will not win this war." Lucifer glared at me although fear was still evident in his eyes, no matter how much he tried to hide it. With a fluttering of wings he was gone. 

As soon as he left I collapsed on the floor, feeling the power leaving me and my energy dropping to nearly zero. Gabriel rushed to my side, pressing his hand to the side of my face and using his powers to restore my health.

"Looks like you are the knight in shining armor after all, rescuing the damsel in distress." I giggled softly as I sat up. "Thanks for that, by the way."

Gabriel let out a relieved laugh. "Yeah, no problem. And thanks for that, whatever that was. What the hell was it anyways?" 

I shook my head, I had no answer. Gabriel stood up and helped me to, feet. "As far as I know both of us survived, that's good enough for me. Come on, Sam and Dean are waiting in the car for us." To be honest I wasn't sure what had happened there, I didn't know what had come over me and it scared me a little. What the hell was inside me that I could make the devil run scared just by talking?

We made it down to the car where the brothers were waiting for us. Sam had his laptop sitting on top of the hood and Dean was holding the CD, waiting till I got there before starting it. It was obvious they only expected one of us to make it out alive. I thoroughly enjoyed the surprised and happy look if their eyes as they watched both of us approaching. Even Dean looked happy to see the angel. 

Of course he covered that up quickly, a teasing tone taking over. "Guard this with my life huh? Well let's see what all that fuss was about."

He moved to slide it into the computer before Gabriel stopped him. "You know what? Let's not." Was it my imagination or was that blush on his face?

"Well you have to at least tell us what it is." Sam complained. 

Gabriel shifted his weight uncomfortably. "Last words, a few confessions, personalized goodbyes. A bunch of chick flick-y stuff. Nothing you want to see now." Before we could protest he snapped his fingers, making the disk disappear into thin air. "Anyways, I lived, thanks to Abby being all magic, so anything I said in that really doesn't matter."

"Wait what?" Dean asked, confusion splayed across his face. "Magic?" 

Great, now all the attention was on me. I explained to Sam and Dean what happened back in the ballroom. I told them how I felt power rushing through me and the words just came out. I watched as their faced morphed into confusion when I mentioned Lucifer running away just by me talking, but the boys waited patiently until I was done talking. I tried to explain the whole thing as best I could, Gabriel chiming in when necessary.

"None of this makes any sense." Sam complained, running a hand through his hair in annoyance. 

"Well..." Dean seemed to be as much at loss of words as his brother. "So, next stop Chuck's place?" He glanced at each of us, waiting for one of us to object. None of us did.

Chuck answered the door, smiling as he saw us. "Sam, Dean. Always nice to see you again. And you must be Abigall Spiers, so glad to finally meet you in person." He gave a nod of approval as he looked me over, a semi sad look in his eyes. It made me feel uncomfortable, like he was deciding what flowers I would like best at my funeral, carnations or roses. "So you're here, great. That's great." Was it my imagination or did his confidence seem to falter a bit? "Well you made it, even with everything that happened. And you survived." He smiled proudly at Gabriel who had moved slightly in front of me just in case. Not that I would need protecting now, Chuck didn't seem very threatening.

Dean rolled his eyes at the prophets rambling and pushed his way into the house, the rest of us following slowly and far more politely. "So Chuck, what did you see or want to tell us that you couldn't say over the phone?" 

"Yes, please come in. Make yourselves comfortable." He mumbled under his breath. He glanced around our small group, his face turning confused. "Where is Castiel? Is he not traveling with you anymore?" 

Sam shook his head. "No, he still does usually. Just recently he has been on a quest to find God. Didn't you see anything about that?"

Chuck glanced down with a somewhat guilty look on his face. "Right, now I remember. Only I don't think he will find him where he is looking."

We all glanced around at each other, sharing the same confused look. What could he mean by that? 

I spoke up first. "What do you mean? Where is he?"

Chuck sighed in disappointment. "You mean after everything you still haven't figured out the truth yet?" 

Sam was the first to voice the thoughts everyone had. "I'm sorry, but what truth?"

The prophet smiled slightly, almost as if he was nervous about how we would react to what he was about to say. "Well that I'm God, of course."


End file.
